Chuck Versus Judgment Day
by Davin Sunrider
Summary: (AU) On April 17th, 2011, Chuck did not know three things: 1) One of the GRETAs was actually a cyborg from the future. 2) Sarah Walker had been targeted for termination. 3) The world was going to end in four days.
1. Future Starts Slow

_In one possible future, a military computer intended for coordination of intelligence and defense networks, known as Skynet, went online in the late twentieth century. The computer, designed to detect threats to national security, became self-aware and came to regard all human beings as a threat. Skynet seized control of the systems under its coordination and initiated a worldwide nuclear bombardment._

_Billions of human lives ended in a single day._

_Those who remained came to call the event Judgment Day. They survived the nuclear fire only to face the relentless onslaught of the machines under Skynet's control. The war raged for years. Humankind was pushed to the brink of extermination._

_One man emerged to lead them from the ashes: John Connor. _

_Under his leadership, the Resistance beat back the machines. On the edge of victory, they discovered secret Skynet laboratories, filled with what they realized was time displacement equipment; desperate, knowing the war was lost in 2027, Skynet sent elite infiltration units - Terminators - back through time to eliminate John Connor and his chief lieutenants in their youth in an attempt to rewrite history. Realizing what this meant, Connor sent his own agents back through time to stop them and destroyed the laboratories._

_One by one, the time-traveling saboteurs have been defeated. Judgment Day has been postponed again and again. Skynet's last chance to ensure its own existence draws close._

_The battle for our tomorrow begins yesterday._

**Chuck Versus Judgment Day**

**One**  
(Future Starts Slow)

_Los Angeles, California  
April 2011  
J-minus 4 days_

Sparks.

Before sunrise on a clear spring morning, lightning arced out in an alleyway between brick buildings lined with fire escapes, flying out from an invisible sphere in twitching fingers to set garbage aflame. The only witness to this event, a tired old homeless woman dressed in filthy rags, stared at the inexplicable lightning drunkenly, a bottle clutched in one grimy hand. She straightened in her seat in the doorway of one of the buildings, frowning at the crackling electrical discharge as it slowly resolved itself into an eerily perfect mirrored sphere.

The sphere flashed and faded, leaving a crater-like indent in the trash-strewn asphalt of the alleyway, glowing bright red at its edges. In the center of the crater knelt a naked human figure.

The vagrant squinted suspiciously at the bottle in her hand and set it aside, blinking repeatedly. The scene did not change; the figure remained, resolving itself in the dim pre-dawn light to a tall, powerfully built man with short, bristly brown hair and a bodybuilder's physique.

He looked around the alley for a moment before his gaze passed over the homeless woman, and he abruptly stopped, his eyes reminding her of the falcons she occasionally saw hunting among the buildings.

"Hey, did you jus' see a real bright light?" she slurred to the man, still trying to figure out if he was real.

"Sarah Walker?" he asked her, his voice deep, with some sort of accent. He paused, staring at her intently. "No," he said before she could reply.

"What happened to your clothes?" the homeless woman asked him. "Little lady kick you out or something?"

"What is the date?" the naked bodybuilder asked her.

The vagrant squinted at her cheap green watch, its broken band patched with duct tape. "April the 17th."

"What year?"

"And I thought _I_ was drunk," the vagrant cackled. "What have you been drinking, buddy? Got any left?"

Booming bass sounded just then, loud enough to rattle the windows in the alley, accompanied by the soft white glow of distant headlights shining against the walls of the buildings.

The vagrant cowered back in her doorway. "Gangbangers," she whimpered. She looked up at the naked bodybuilder. "You better hide, buddy."

The man did not move, his raptor gaze locked on the end of the alley. He waited patiently as the car drew nearer, and did not flinch when the headlights shone in his face.

"Yo, what the hell is this?" a young male voice shouted out of the darkness beyond the headlights over the screech of brakes. "Get your naked ass outta the way 'fore I pop a round in it."

"I warned you," the vagrant muttered, huddling against the door.

The man still did not move, staring with only a slight squint at the car. "Give me your clothes and your vehicle."

"Hell with you," the gangbanger shouted back. "Put him down!"

With a bright flash, a gunshot erupted out of the darkness, and the man jerked as the bullet tore into his upper chest on the right side.

But he did not go down.

Instead, he marched forward into the glow of the headlights, and suddenly the homeless woman heard more gunshots, crashing noises, and the gangbangers screaming panicked curses. Finally things went silent but for the thumping bass of the car stereo, and she heard pained blubbering which ended with three gunshots.

One minute later, the huge man walked back over to her, now dressed in dark blue jeans which had been baggy on their original owners but fit him snugly, a tight black t-shirt, and black boots. He had a splash of blood across his face, which he wiped off with the ragged, already bloody white shirt he held in one enormous hand as he approached. He stopped in front of her and tossed his bloody rag aside.

"Please don't hurt me," the vagrant whimpered. "I won't tell the cops nothing, I swear."

"Which direction is the highway from here?" he asked, frighteningly calm.

The vagrant stared at him incredulously. "What?"

"Which direction is the highway from here?" he repeated patiently.

She raised one hand and pointed, breathing raggedly.

The man slowly looked in the direction she indicated, then back at her. "Thank you," he said emotionlessly, and turned to walk back to the gangbangers' still-running car.

A moment later, the booming bass ceased, and the car's wheels screeched as it drove past her down the alley.

"Sure glad I ain't Sarah Walker," the vagrant muttered to herself as she collected her meager possessions and fled. "Whoever that is."

* * *

"Walker?" a gruff male voice called through Castle, headquarters of Carmichael Industries. "Walker, you here?"

In the well-stocked armory of the former CIA/NSA base, a slender woman in her late twenties with shoulder-length blonde hair, dressed in black trousers, boots, and a t-shirt of the same color, sat at a table, expertly disassembling and cleaning an assault rifle. When she finished arranging the components on the table, she set her cleaning rag aside and looked up.

"In the armory, Casey," she called back, standing. "What is it?"

John Casey, a tall, broad-shouldered man with dark hair, appeared in the doorway, dressed in a similar outfit consisting of a polo shirt, trousers, and boots, all black. "Just got a message through the website. Somebody wants to hire us, wants you and Bartowski to call 'em as soon as you can."

"What's the number?" Sarah asked, reaching into her hip pocket. "I'll call them right now."

"Better get your dumber half first," Casey said. "Message was very specific that they wanted to talk to all three of us. All stiff and clandestine-like, probably wannabe CIA or something."

Sarah, herself a former CIA agent, smirked lightly at that. "I think he and Morgan are around here somewhere." She gestured to the rifle on the table. "Can you go find him while I get this squared away?"

Casey nodded once. "Sure."

* * *

In a darkened passageway, its walls and ceiling black with dark red metal bulkheads spaced evenly along its length, a tall, skinny young man in his late twenties walked warily along, his white-soled black sneakers making almost no sound. He wore black trousers and an untucked white shirt with a gray necktie, its knot loosened to hang below the shirt's second button. A badge affixed to a pocket protector filled with pens and pencils proclaimed him to be Chuck Bartowski, Nerd Herd Supervisor.

Chuck turned at the sound of deep breathing from somewhere behind him, his eyes narrowed suspiciously. "I know you're there," he called.

"The Force is with you, young Bartowski," a voice called back, mechanically distorted. "But you are not a Jedi yet!"

With that, an odd figure leaped around a bend in the corridor: a short man in a gray suit and similar white-soled black sneakers, wearing an incongruous black Darth Vader helmet. In his right hand he held a toy lightsaber, which he 'ignited', turning its blade a glowing red.

Chuck activated his own 'lightsaber', which was blue, and they crossed blades several times, the plastic clacking together as speakers hidden in the hilts made sparking electrical noises.

The diminutive 'Vader' drove Chuck back down the hallway into a wide room lined with darkened computer monitors and empty alcoves. Chuck pretended to stumble on something and went down, toppling backwards to lay on his back on the floor.

"You are beaten! It is useless to resist," 'Vader' said, swooping forward to place the end of his glowing red blade above Chuck's neck. "Don't make me destroy you."

"What are you two morons doing?" demanded a voice from the entrance to the hallway they'd just come down.

Chagrined, Chuck looked over to see Casey standing there with his arms crossed over his chest, glowering at them disapprovingly.

"Um…" Chuck hesitated, then finally shrugged and smiled. "Exactly what it looks like."

'Vader' pulled off his helmet to reveal the grinning bearded face of Morgan Grimes. He held the helmet and toy lightsaber out to Casey. "Want a turn, big guy?"

Casey's glower deepened as he stared wordlessly at Morgan.

"Joking, obviously," Morgan said, unconcerned. "Hold this, would you?" he said, handing the helmet to Casey before helping Chuck to his feet with his free hand.

"Got a potential client," Casey said, gesturing back down the hallway with a thumb. "Wants to talk to the head of Carmichael Industries. Should I go back and tell him you're busy playing with your toys?"

"No," Chuck said quickly, handing his toy lightsaber to Morgan. "Who is it?" he asked, trying to hide his embarrassment.

Casey smirked at him anyway. "He won't say. Wants us to call him."

Chuck hurried past him, heading back to the main area of Castle, but Morgan stayed behind for a moment, looking up at the taller Casey.

"You'd make a good Vader, you know," he said, gesturing to the mask Casey held in one hand. "You wear a lot of black. And you've already got the whole 'scary dad' thing going on."

"Move it, Grimes," Casey growled. "Just 'cause we closed off this part of Castle doesn't mean you can come down and screw around in here."

"But it looks _just_ like the hallway in Cloud City where Luke and Vader fought!" Morgan protested. "All we need is a big window and things I can throw at Chuck."

"Out!" Casey barked, pointing down the hall.

Morgan scurried off, leaving Casey alone in the disused section of Castle.

Casey looked down at the plastic Vader helmet and let out a soft chuckle. "No, _I_ am your father," he said to himself.

A snort of suppressed laughter made him look up, and he scowled again as he saw both Morgan and Chuck standing at the end of the hallway, still within earshot, looking at him and snickering.

"Out!"

* * *

In the outdoor food court of the shopping center around the Burbank Buy More, two men dressed similarly to Chuck sat at one of the tables eating lunch, shaded from the bright midday sun beneath a large orange and white umbrella. One of the men, bushy-haired and vacant-eyed, slurped loudly from a large soda cup, noisily rooting around in a bag of chips with his other hand.

His companion, a shorter man with a fringe of black hair and an olive complexion, took a large bite of his sandwich, idly looking around the shopping center, and suddenly froze, staring at something over the other man's shoulder. A small piece of lettuce hung from the corner of his mouth, quivering slightly.

"Jeffery," he hissed in an urgent whisper, reaching over to shake the other man's arm. "Jeffery, look!"

"What?" Jeff asked, blinking drowsily. "What is it, Lester?"

Lester pointed. "It's that horrifying Greta woman who tried to kill us a few months ago!"

Jeff ducked as he turned in his seat, nearly toppling his chair. "Where?"

Lester pointed again, his arm shaking. "Over there, near the Underpants Etc." He paused, an odd look coming over his face. "Oh, go inside," he muttered half to himself. "Go in the underwear store, you frightening sexy woman."

The object of his attention was a willowy young woman with long light brown hair walking through the parking lot of the shopping center with a purposeful gait. She wore tight jeans tucked into calf-length leather boots, a purple leather jacket over a black tank top, and carried a white plastic shopping bag in one hand.

"Lester, she threatened us with a knife!" Jeff said, slouching down in his chair and peering over the back.

"I thought you liked that in a woman, Jeffery."

An almost wistful expression passed over Jeff's face at this. "Yeah, I kinda do." He sobered, or at least got close. "But what's she doing here?"

Lester watched eagerly for a moment, and his face fell as the young woman turned away from the Underpants Etc. and went into a sporting goods store instead. "Probably buying something boring like a tent," he said sourly, finally putting his sandwich down. He paused, his beady eyes flicking back up to the row of storefronts. "Hey, let's follow her!"

"What if she sees us?" Jeff asked nervously.

Lester shrugged. "Then we'll just do what we always do when we get caught following a woman: run away and hope she doesn't call the police."

Jeff paused in a rare moment of reflection. "We're disgusting, aren't we?"

Lester waved this away dismissively. "Bah. Let's go, Jeffery. Stay down."

Crouching below the row of windows along the front wall of the shopping center, the two of them scurried over to the sporting goods store. In unison, they slowly edged their faces up over the bottom of the window, looking inside.

"I don't see her," Jeff whispered to his companion, his nose pressed up against the glass.

"She's over there by the guns," Lester whispered back, nudging Jeff with his elbow.

Jeff's brows rose appreciatively. "She really knows how to handle a weapon."

Lester grinned salaciously. "I'd like her to handle my weapon."

Both of them jumped as someone suddenly smacked the glass from inside the store. They looked up to see the store's manager, an older man a large bushy white mustache, scowling down at them.

"How many times do I have to tell you two deviates to cut that out?" he shouted, his voice muffled by the window.

"She sees us, Lester!" Jeff warned, pointing.

"Run!"

Cringing, both of them ran in an odd sort of crouching sprint back to the food court, where they ducked back into their seats and huddled over the table, feigning nonchalance.

When Lester dared to look back over at the store, he saw the Greta woman standing in front of it and staring directly at him, now with several long boxes under one arm, the shopping bag in her other hand accompanied by another filled with ammo boxes.

As Lester watched, her eyes narrowed slightly and her head tilted slightly to one side, as if she was considering whether to walk over to them, but she apparently decided against it and walked through the parking lot instead. When she reached her vehicle, a large late-model black king-cab pickup, she stowed the boxes and the shopping bags in the backseat, then turned as she closed the door to look at Jeff and Lester again. She frowned, just enough to be noticeable at this distance.

Lester cowered behind his sandwich, peering furtively over it and wishing fervently that she would get in her truck and drive away.

His wish was not granted.

Instead of getting into the truck, the young woman put her keys back in her pocket and set off through the parking lot again, staring intently at something several yards away. Lester followed her gaze and saw that she was looking at a television in the window of the small electronics store that somehow managed to stay open only a few spaces down from the Buy More.

It was probably because the owner was so sickeningly pleasant, Lester thought to himself, and didn't snap at annoying customers with their stupid problems.

As the door of the electronics store opened, he caught a snippet of the news broadcast currently playing. "_The victim was identified as Sarah Walker, 41, a local resident found brutally shot to death in her home just a few short hours ago."_

"Whoa, somebody killed Bartowski's super-hot wife?" Jeff said, half-turning in his chair.

"Not her, you nimrod; somebody else with the same name," Lester snapped.

"Weird," Jeff said, picking up his soda again. He looked at his watch. "Our lunch hour's over."

Lester leaned back in his chair. "So we've got another fifteen minutes."

The Greta woman stared at the television for a moment, then reached into her hip pocket and pulled out a cell phone. The motion tugged up the back of her jacket just enough for Lester to see a handgun tucked into the back of her jeans, and his eyes widened in alarm.

She said something into the phone, brought it down to push a couple of buttons, then raised it to her ear again and said something else, frowning slightly. After a moment, she flipped the phone closed, shoved it back into her pocket, then marched back to her truck and drove away.

Lester didn't have time to wonder what this meant, since just then Big Mike, the assistant manager, emerged from the Buy More and shouted over to them. "Patel, Barnes, get your lazy butts in here! Break time's over!"

"Coming, Michael!" Lester said as he stood.

* * *

Chuck, Sarah, and Casey gathered around the table in Castle's conference room, looking up at the large screen on one wall as Sarah typed at the table's inset keyboard to establish a video-link.

The screen flared to life as the person on the other end answered the call, displaying a middle-aged man in a suit and tie with a shaved-bald head, sitting in front of a featureless dark blue wall.

"_Thank you for contacting me so quickly,_" the man said. "_I have a job for you, if you're interested._"

"Carmichael Industries is here to solve your problems," Chuck said with a bright smile. Casey elbowed him in the side, and he quickly added, "For the right price, Mister…"

"_Smith,_" the man replied. "_My clients prefer not to identify themselves at this time, due to the sensitive nature of the situation._ _The job's simple, but we need it done quickly. As in, tonight. Fifty thousand; half on acceptance, half on completion._"

Chuck opened his mouth to reply, but Smith continued before he could speak.

"_Two hours ago, my company monitored an attempt to gain access to our secure servers through some sort of worm. We traced the worm's origin to a computer in Zeira Corp headquarters."_

"They're in technology development, aren't they?" Sarah said. "Why would they want to attack your company?"

"_That's what we want you to find out,_" Smith replied. "_We think Zeira Corp is up to something beyond the attack on us, but we have no proof to offer the authorities yet. What we want you to do is find out whether this was a sanctioned attack or if it was just an employee. Bring us pictures of what they've got in their R&D labs and copy their drives. We'll go through it for evidence of illegal activity, and if we find any, we'll go to the feds."_

Chuck and Sarah exchanged a quick glance, then Chuck nodded and smiled. "We'll take the job."

Smith smiled stiffly. "_Excellent. I'm wiring the first half of the money to your holding account now."_

"Is there anything else you can tell us, Mr. Smith?" Sarah asked.

Smith's smile vanished. "_If you get caught, you're on your own."_

With that, he cut the connection and vanished from the screen.

Casey turned to Sarah. "So, corporate espionage?"

She nodded. "Most likely. Whoever he's working for is probably a competitor who wants a look inside Zeira Corp to see what they're up to. Like he said, if we get caught, we're on our own."

Chuck frowned. "I don't like this. We didn't start Carmichael Industries to steal corporate secrets. I say we call him back and refuse the job."

Casey blocked the keyboard with one hand. "Not so fast, Bartowski. We've been burning through the money Volkoff left us trying to get this company up and running; we can't just turn away a paying job like this."

"Casey, it's corporate espionage," Chuck protested. "You said it yourself. This guy wouldn't even say who he's working for."

"Which means _he's_ up to something illegal, brainiac," Casey rejoined. "He said it needs to be done today to keep us from looking into it too much. It's why he hired a nothing outfit like us." He raised a finger as Chuck's expression turned indignant. "We still are, and you know it."

"Yeah, I guess," Chuck conceded. "But what do we do? We're not government-sanctioned anymore; we can't just waltz in and count on Beckman to cover our backs."

"I've heard rumors that Zeira is up to something big, maybe even illegal like Smith claims," Sarah said. "I say we go in-"

"Breaking and entering," Chuck said, holding up one finger.

"And take a look around," Sarah went on.

Chuck raised another finger. "Criminal trespassing."

Sarah continued patiently. "If it looks like Zeira is doing something illegal, we send the pictures to the authorities ourselves. If there's nothing…" She leaned toward her husband, a sly smile crossing her face. "We tell Zeira someone tried to hire us to break in, and offer to tighten their security instead. For a hefty fee, of course, we'll also look into who hired us."

Casey snorted. "Spoken like a true CIA agent." He shrugged. "But that's what I was thinking, too."

Chuck hesitated. "I don't know. I still don't really like this."

Casey scoffed. "Bartowski, you can't make a private intelligence omelet without breaking a few eggs. If you're actually serious about Carmichael, we have to get our start somewhere. If Zeira _is_ up to something, they get busted. If they're not, they're a big potential client for us."

"Okay," Chuck said finally. "But we'll just have to try very hard not to get caught."

Sarah raised one eyebrow. "As opposed to the way we usually do things?"

Chuck made a face. "Oh, you know what I meant."

Sarah smiled, and leaned over to kiss his cheek as she stood up. "I'll get started on the mission prep."

Casey gestured to the bank of surveillance monitors along one wall of the main room. "You better go back upstairs and check on the Buy Morons. They already wonder why you're hardly ever in the store." He smirked. "Maybe you can see if Darth Grimes is ready to go another round."

Chuck grinned. "Join us, Casey. Con season's coming up, and we're putting together an '_Empire Strikes Back'_ cast. Morgan's right; you'd make a great Vader, and Alex has already agreed to be Leia." He comically extended a hand to the other man dramatically. "Give yourself to the Dork Side."

"Oh, shut up," said Casey.

"How about Chewbacca? You do growl a lot."

As Chuck expected, Casey responded to this with one of his trademark growls, then paused, realizing what he'd done.

"Move it, numb-nuts!"

Chuck laughed as he headed for the elevator.

* * *

Returning from its trip to the shopping center, the black king-cab pickup pulled up to a two-story brick house, where it was met in the driveway by a young man with short brown hair wearing jeans, a red t-shirt and a leather jacket.

He called to the driver as the truck stopped. "Hey, Cameron, where have you been all afternoon?"

"I required additional weapons," she replied as she opened the door to the truck's backseat.

"Right," the young man said dryly, his boots crunching on the gravel driveway as he walked over to her. "We don't have enough guns around here already."

"You can never have too many guns," Cameron replied evenly as she pulled out the boxes and the bag of ammunition. She handed him one of the boxes. "I got you a new shotgun, John. Merry Christmas."

John looked up from the box with a slight bemused frown. "Cameron, Christmas was almost five months ago."

She met his gaze with a sudden unsettling intensity. "There may not be another one."

John sighed heavily. "Right," he said sourly, lowering the box to his side. "We're almost to J-Day, from your timeline anyway."

"Skynet goes online April 19th, 2011," Cameron said. "Judgment Day is the 21st."

"Unless we stop it," said John.

"Unless we stop it," Cameron repeated.

"Yeah, well, in Uncle Bob's timeline, J-Day was August 29th, 1997, and we're still here fourteen years later," John said. "Even though we jumped over eleven of them."

"Uncle Bob?" Cameron asked curiously.

John looked back at her. "You know, the first one of you guys Future Me sent back to protect us? That's what I called him."

"T-800 series model 101," Cameron said. "An efficient model, but flawed. They were too tall and muscular to be inconspicuous. Also, their infiltration programming was insufficiently subtle."

John chuckled. "Yeah, yeah, you're better at that. Do machines feel jealousy?"

Cameron looked back at him without expression. "We feel."

Now it was John's turn to look at her curiously. "You've said that before. What do you-"

He was interrupted by the sound of the front door of the house bursting open, and both of them turned to look. In the doorway stood a steely-eyed woman in her mid-thirties with shoulder-length dark reddish-brown hair, dressed in a maroon tank top and dark gray cargo pants tucked into black combat boots. "Both of you get in here," she called to them. "We have a situation."

Once all three of them were in the house's living room, she grabbed the remote off the arm of the couch and turned up the volume on the television.

"_Once again, the victim has been identified as Sarah Walker, 20, a college student at UCLA, shot to death just off campus one hour ago. This makes the second woman named Sarah Walker murdered today, but as of this time, it is unknown whether the killings are connected." _

"1984; two Sarah Connors were killed before that thing zeroed in on me," John's mother said. She snatched a phone book off the edge of the couch. "There are four Sarah Walkers in the L.A. area. Is one of them in the Resistance in the future?"

"Yes," Cameron replied. "A woman named Sarah Walker, a former agent of the Central Intelligence Agency, is one of John's chief lieutenants in the future. She helps him set up security protocols in Resistance bases and develop early-warning systems for spotting Terminators attempting infiltration. She also assists John with strategy; she is key in organizing the raid on the Topanga Canyon facility which holds the time displacement equipment."

"So where is she now?" John asked. "Did this thing kill her already?"

"No," Cameron said, turning to look at him. "The Sarah Walker in the Resistance is neither of those women. I have already identified Sarah Walker's location in this time during one of my routine checks of known Resistance members' locations, something which I began doing after the incident with Martin Bedell."

"This one of those things you do at night when we're asleep?" Sarah Connor asked her.

Cameron looked over at her. "Yes."

"Why haven't you told me?"

"It's better if you don't know," Cameron replied. "If you are captured again, agents of Skynet in this time could torture the information out of you."

Sarah gave Cameron a dark look at that, but didn't pursue the point. Instead she asked, "So where's the Sarah Walker this thing is really after?"

"She's not in the phone book. She was formerly undercover, assigned to the joint CIA/NSA Intersect Project. Her division of the project was dissolved several months ago, but her team has since formed a private intelligence and operations agency, Carmichael Industries. They continue to operate out of the same location, a hidden base beneath the Burbank Buy More."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute," said John. "If she's CIA, her file would be _extremely_ classified. How do you know all this?"

"Before I was sent back, Sarah Walker gave me her access codes to the CIA database," Cameron answered. "I used them to discern her location in this time so I could monitor her in preparation for a situation like this. Among other things."

"If you can access the government's databases, why don't you erase Mom's FBI file?" John asked.

"That would create more problems than it solved," said Sarah. "Our blowing up Cyberdyne and all the other things I did were high-profile enough that it'd be suspicious if my file just disappeared. The FBI still thinks we're dead, and I'd like to keep it that way for as long as possible."

"Sarah Walker is also no longer an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency," Cameron added. "Her codes aren't valid anymore."

"So, here's what we do," Sarah said, resting her hand on the pile of cardboard boxes next to her. "John, Derek, and I finish moving the rest of our gear. Tin Miss will go to Burbank, look up the relevant Sarah Walker, and take out the other machine when it comes after her."

"That would be inadvisable," said Cameron. "I already attempted to infiltrate the Intersect Project at the Burbank location. I was… unsuccessful, and the employees there will remember me. Two of them recognized me when I went to that shopping center this afternoon to pick up the guns."

"Is that where you went last fall?" John asked. "When you just disappeared for a few days with no explanation?"

"Yes."

"Did you kill anyone there?"

Cameron paused fractionally before answering. "No."

John crossed his arms, his expression going very serious. "Did you? Don't lie to me."

Cameron tilted her head slightly to one side. "Almost doesn't count."

John exchanged a wry look with his mother. "Yeah, they'd definitely remember her," he said. "One of us needs to go."

"We'll send Derek," Sarah said. "Where is he, anyway? He should have been back by now."

"I sent him to check on the other Sarah Walkers in the phone book when I saw the first broadcast," said Cameron.

"You said Carmichael Industries' base is under a Buy More?" John asked. At Cameron's nod, he went on. "Okay, I'll go there myself. Loitering in the store would be too noticeable, so I'll get a job as a Nerd Herd guy or something. We should also figure out where Walker lives and find a place nearby for a few days until we zero in on the Terminator after her."

"No, John, we need to get out of here," said Sarah. "Kaliba is still after us."

John turned to her with a determined look that made him seem older than his years. "This thing is after Walker and she has no idea. We can do something about it, so we will." His tone left no room for debate.

Sarah's face shifted into an expression halfway between exasperation and parental pride. "Fine," she conceded. "But after this thing is gone, so are we." She turned back to Cameron. "So what's this Intersect Project, anyway?"

* * *

-/\-

* * *

Author's Note: This story is completely written out, at eight chapters and an epilogue, (think of it as a two-part episode of both shows or a movie) but I'll be posting one chapter per week to allow for any additional editing that might be necessary. I saw that I wasn't the first to do a crossover between these two shows, but for obvious reasons, I won't be reading any of those stories until this is completely posted.

As you've no doubt picked up from the story itself, this is set between the fourth and fifth seasons of 'Chuck', but I had to fudge the dates a bit to get 'TSCC' to line up with it; for the purposes of this story, the Connors jumped to fall 2010 instead of 2007, but otherwise everything in this timeline happened mostly as it did on the show. For 'TSCC', this story picks up after 'Today Is The Day, Part 2', opening with sort of an alternate version of 'To The Lighthouse' and proceeding from there. Also, this gave me the chance to set the story near the show's given date for Judgment Day, April 21, 2011, for reasons that will shortly become clear.

I hope you enjoy reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Till next time, thanks for reading!


	2. Breaking and Entering

**Two  
**(Breaking and Entering)

The Carmichael team gathered around the conference table in Castle for the mission briefing, all three dressed in black fatigues and geared up.

"Here's what I could find on Zeira Corp at such short notice," Chuck said as he brought up the information on the screen.

A picture of a red-haired woman in her late thirties dressed in an expensive business suit appeared. "Catherine Weaver, CEO of Zeira Corp. She and her husband Lachlan, both originally from Scotland, started the company ten years ago. Two years ago, Lachlan died in a helicopter crash, and she's carried on as sole chief executive since then. Lachlan's death seems to have hit her pretty hard, because by all accounts she's been different lately, much more cold and calculating in her business decisions."

"More willing to do something illegal to get ahead?" Casey said.

Chuck shrugged in reply, then went on, bringing up an image of an African-American man also in his late thirties with a shaved-bald head and a neatly trimmed black beard. "James Ellison, head of security. He's former FBI; he resigned from the Bureau several months ago after a fugitive he was trying to apprehend killed twenty members of his task force."

"I remember that," Sarah said. "Out-of-work actor named George Lazlo. I was surprised a guy like him could kill so many men by himself."

"Some of them died in the explosion when he blew himself up at the end," said Casey. He frowned. "Though I've heard rumors Lazlo escaped and he's been spotted a couple times since then."

"Yeah, supposedly once down in Mexico," Sarah agreed. "I don't know how much of that's true, but it's not relevant to the mission anyway."

"Like I said, Ellison's former FBI," Chuck went on, "so security's going to be pretty tight during the day while he's there. We go in around midnight." He turned to his wife. "Sarah, what did you find on your recon run this afternoon?"

"Like you said, security in the lobby is tight," Sarah answered. "I looked up the blueprints outside before I went in, and though they're a few years old, the duct I found to get us inside should still be there. We go through the air ducts-"

"Classic for a reason," Chuck put in.

"-and once we're inside," Sarah went on, smiling slightly at Chuck, "I found a junction box we can use to hack into the security system and loop the feed."

Chuck grinned back at her. "Also a classic."

"We gonna wear rubber clown masks, too?" Casey quipped.

"I considered it," Chuck said dryly. "Decided to go with standard ski masks instead." Suddenly his phone beeped a text message alert, and he looked at it. "Ellie says turn on the news right now," he said. "It's something about Sarah."

Sarah turned the screen to one of the local channels, showing a gray-haired anchor in a suit and tie with the words 'One-Day Serial Killer' in a box graphic over his shoulder.

"_In what police are calling possible serial killer activity, a third woman named Sarah Walker, this one a law student aged 23, was assaulted outside her home late this evening by an unknown individual._" A dark, grainy cell phone picture of the head and shoulders of a powerfully built man with short brown hair appeared in place of the graphic. Though it was likely just a trick of the light, his eyes appeared to be glowing red.

"_According to witnesses interviewed at the scene, another man arrived and exchanged gunshots with the first man before pushing Sarah Walker into her car and driving away._" As the anchor spoke, the shot shifted to a blue background and the first picture was joined by a second, this one also a cell phone picture of a different brown-haired man in an olive green military-style jacket, his arms raised and holding a shotgun, the stock of which obscured the lower half of his face. The sleeves of his jacket were pushed up, and tattoos were visible on both his forearms.

The shot shifted back to the anchor. "_The first man, who was apparently wearing some sort of body armor, also escaped. Though the police are treating this as a kidnapping case, a witness at the scene claims the second man may in fact be a Good Samaritan, as he is supposed to have said to the victim, quote, 'Come with me if you want to live' before pushing her into her car. It is unknown at this time whether these two individuals are working together, but both are wanted by the police and considered armed and extremely dangerous."_

The three of them sat in shocked silence for a moment before Chuck said, "It's the Phone Book Killer all over again!"

"Who?" Sarah asked, clearly struggling to keep her calm.

Chuck switched off the television, then turned back to her. "A serial killer like this in 1984, who killed two women named Sarah Connor in the same day in the order their names appeared in the phone book." He leaned back in his chair. "In college, Morgan and I went through a phase where we looked up old unsolved serial killer cases and tried to see if we could figure them out. I remember the Phone Book Killer in particular because he shot up a police station and killed almost twenty officers the next day, and got away. He was spotted again several years later around the time the Cyberdyne Systems building was blown up, but he was never caught."

"Sarah Connor…" Casey muttered to himself. "Where else have I heard that name?"

"Wasn't she the one the one who destroyed Cyberdyne and killed Miles Dyson?" Sarah said. "Some kind of anti-technology domestic terrorist?"

Casey snapped his fingers. "That's it. Sarah J. Connor. The FBI asked the NSA for help on her case in '99 right before she and a couple other people blew themselves up in a bank vault."

Sarah looked over at Chuck. "Do you think this is the Phone Book Killer again?"

Chuck shook his head. "No, this has to be a copycat. The original would be in his sixties by now, and both men in the photos they showed can't be much more than thirty." He looked back at her, his face filled with concern. "I think you should stay here in Castle until they catch this guy. Casey and I can do this mission without you."

Sarah shook her head. "One, no, you can't. Two, my 'Sarah Walker' identity is not in the phone book, and three, I have lots of guns and a partner and neighbor who has lots of guns," she said with a gesture to Casey.

Casey grunted in affirmation. "That's right. This guy comes after Walker, _he's_ the one getting shot."

"So what do you want to do?" Chuck asked his wife.

"What we were already going to do," Sarah replied. "We do the mission, and then we look into this new serial killer tomorrow. There's no way he can get anywhere near me tonight." She gestured to Chuck's phone. "Text Ellie back: tell her we're on a mission tonight and that this guy has no way of knowing where we live."

Chuck nodded as he began typing. "Devon's home with the baby tonight; I'll text him, too and tell him to stay upstairs with the lights off and not answer the door just in case this guy does come poking around."

Casey pulled out his own phone. "We'd better tell Grimes and Alex to go over there with him so Captain Awesome doesn't do something stupid like try to catch this guy himself if he shows up."

Chuck looked up from his phone with wide eyes. "He'd do it, too. Good idea, Casey." He paused. "Wait. We should just have them all stay here in Castle tonight."

"Let's not cause any more of a panic than necessary," Sarah cautioned. "As long as they stay inside and don't answer the door, they should be all right."

"Alex also has my number and she knows where all my guns are," Casey added. "This guy shows up at the apartments, we'll just have them call us."

"And the cops," said Chuck.

"And the cops," Casey confirmed. He looked at his watch. "Two hours till midnight. We've got stuff to do before the mission, so let's get moving."

* * *

As they were about to leave for Burbank, Sarah Connor's phone rang. She paused in the middle of the living room, snatched it out of the pocket of her black jacket, and answered it as soon as she recognized the number. "Derek, where the hell are you?" she said by way of greeting after the confirmation code, waving John and Cameron back inside. "I just saw your picture on the ten o'clock news."

"_We're on our way to Sarah Walker Number Four's apartment,_" Derek answered. "_Number Three's okay, just freaked out. I got her out of there before the metal did any damage._" He paused. "_Wait, I was on the news?_"

"Somebody got pictures of your shootout with the machine at Number Three's house and sent them to the press," Sarah said. "Now you're going to have the cops after you, too."

"_Great,"_ Derek growled. "_I don't suppose you have another safe house squirreled away somewhere around here?_"

Sarah paused, internally debating whether to answer this. Partially to stall while she decided, she said, "You sound like you're in pain. Are you all right?"

"_Caught some shrapnel in my back,_" Derek replied. "_I gave the metal a face full of buckshot, so we should have enough time to pick up Number Four while he's making himself pretty again._"

"I agree," said Cameron. "Now that the Terminator has drawn the attention of the authorities, he will be careful about concealing damage to his skin, and will likely further alter his appearance if he sees himself on the news. They have a few hours' head start."

"You're sure?" John asked her.

Cameron turned her head to look at him over her shoulder. "It's what I would do."

"Okay, I'm going to give you an address," Sarah said to Derek. "It's a lighthouse on the coast. You'll find Charley Dixon there." She noted John's look of surprise at this, but he said nothing. "He'll patch you up and keep those women safe," she went on. Sarah injected an even stronger note of seriousness into her voice. "Derek, make sure you're not followed. Even more sure than usual."

His tone was equally grave. "_I understand. You want me to check in once we get there?_"

"No, and don't stay there long," Sarah replied. "Explain things to Charley, get patched up, and head for Burbank as soon as you can. Call me when you get there and I'll tell you where to go."

"_Got it,_" said Derek. "_What's the address?_"

After she gave it to him and they hung up, Sarah looked up to see Cameron staring at her. "You didn't tell me about this location," said the machine.

Sarah looked back at her unflinchingly. "No, I didn't. You got the truck ready?"

"Yes."

"Check the supplies again."

"I already secured-"

Sarah pointed out the door. "Check them again."

Finally Cameron took the hint and left, leaving her alone with John.

"Charley's at a lighthouse, huh?" John asked, his tone deceptively light.

"Yeah," Sarah answered. "I set it up after… after what happened with his wife. I was about to take you there when this started."

John sighed. "Everything's happening all at once."

"It always is," Sarah replied. She felt a sudden urge to hug her son, and pulled him into her arms. "We're close; I can feel it," she said. "One way or the other, this is going to end soon."

"We've said that before," John said with a trace of bitterness.

Sarah pulled back and held him by the shoulders at arm's length, looking him in the eye. "We're close," she repeated. "This Intersect thing, I'm sure it's related to Skynet somehow. It's a military project, and we know the military bought that Japanese A.I. that beat the Turk. I have a hunch that's what they want to use it for."

John's brows drew together in thought. "You know, you might be right. Directly uploading intelligence files and combat training into the human brain is useful for field agents, but if they had a networked A.I. with that information, watching through a million security cameras… They could monitor an entire city with what amounts to one brain. If that works, the whole country. And from there…"

"Skynet," Sarah finished for him. "In Cameron's timeline, J-Day is Thursday. We've probably already postponed it past that, but I'm not taking the chance. We have only have a few days to find Skynet and destroy it."

John half-smiled, an ironic gleam in his eye. "Then I suppose I'd better hope we're close, too."

* * *

James Ellison sat at his desk in his darkened office in the Zeira Corp building, the only source of illumination in the room his desk lamp and the soft white glow of his computer monitor. Suddenly he felt that he was not alone in the room and looked up.

Despite himself, he jumped when he saw Catherine Weaver standing only a few steps away, wearing another of her expensive-looking outfits, this one a pale green dress.

"I'm sorry if I surprised you, Mr. Ellison," Weaver said in her soft Scottish burr. "I noticed your light was on. You're here late."

"Yeah, I've just… been working with the tech division, trying to trace that attack on John Henry earlier," Ellison said, trying to cover his embarrassment at being startled. His employer just had that effect on him sometimes. "John Henry said it was another A.I. that attacked him, not a human hacker, so I started there, looking into companies that might have developed an A.I. sophisticated enough to do something like that."

"Yes, it seems our John Henry is not quite as unique as we thought," Weaver agreed, gracefully lowering herself into one of his office chairs. "Have you looked into the Cyberdyne connection he mentioned?"

Ellison nodded. "That's where I started, trying to see if anybody else might've gotten hold of some of Miles Dyson's work. I thought all of it was destroyed in his lab and in the fire at his house, but clearly Andy Goode had some of Dyson's computer code, which he used to develop what he called the Turk, sort of the… embryo of John Henry."

When he looked up and saw Weaver's approving smile, Ellison realized he hadn't yet told his employer he'd deduced where the original A.I. computer, starting point for what they'd come to call John Henry, had come from. Though she liked to keep her secrets, Weaver occasionally seemed pleased rather than irritated when he figured them out.

"I was expecting you to put that together eventually," Weaver said. "Andy Goode's murder was one of your last cases at the FBI, after all."

Ellison paused, not quite able to bring himself to voice his next question.

"And if you're wondering if I had Andrew Goode killed, you can relax," Weaver continued smoothly, as if she'd read his mind. "I had already sent one of my agents to purchase the Turk from Mr. Goode's partner before he was murdered. Oddly enough, someone else killed the partner shortly after the purchase, but I had nothing to do with either incident. Someone else out there desperately wanted the Turk for themselves, it seems."

"The same someone who attacked John Henry, maybe?" Ellison asked.

Weaver inclined her head slightly. "Perhaps." She gestured to his monitor. "I know it's only been a few hours, but have you found anything?"

"There's a few companies out there that might be capable of building an A.I. that sophisticated," Ellison answered. "ENCOM is rumored to be working on something huge that they're not ready or willing to take public, but a Japanese company called Soranetto seems more likely to me."

"Interesting," said Weaver. "They built the chess computer that beat the Turk in Andy Goode's last match and won the Department of Defense contract."

"Yeah," said Ellison. "I was going to look into them more in the morning. If they're working with the DoD, it's possible their A.I. could have advanced to the same level as John Henry by now."

"Soranetto," Weaver said softly, more to herself than to him. "Interesting. Do you know what that translates to in English?"

"I'm afraid I don't speak Japanese," Ellison admitted.

Weaver was about to go on, but just then Ellison's intercom buzzed. "_Mr. Ellison?"_

"Sorry," he said to Weaver, reaching for it. "Yeah, go ahead."

"_We logged a slight irregularity in the feed for one of the cameras on the first floor a minute ago,"_ the head night-shift security guard replied. "_Ordinarily, I wouldn't think anything of it, but you said to tell you if absolutely anything even a little unusual happened tonight._"

"That's what I said, Mr. Monroe," Ellison confirmed. "Thank you. I'm on my way down to your station now."

On the other side of the desk, Weaver got to her feet and produced a cell phone, which she dialed quickly. "John Henry, do a diagnostic of all the security cameras in the building, and tell me if you find any malfunctions or irregularities."

A moment later, the calm, measured voice of John Henry replied; Weaver put the phone on 'speaker' so Ellison could hear the answer. "_I found something, Ms. Weaver. Three of the cameras on the first floor are no longer transmitting properly. Instead, they seem to be broadcasting a two-minute recorded loop back to the security station._"

"Thank you, John Henry," said Weaver. "I'm on my way down to you now. Call me immediately if anything else unusual happens." After hanging up, she turned. "I may have to give you a raise, Mr. Ellison," she said with a slight smile that reminded him oddly of the moray eel in her office. "Your vigilance might have just given us early warning on a burglar."

* * *

Chuck, Casey, and Sarah stole quietly through the darkened corridors of the Zeira Corp basement, carefully peering around corners for the guard they knew was on patrol somewhere down here.

"Have I mentioned lately how much I hate climbing through air ducts and down elevator shafts?" Chuck whispered to his wife. "People as tall as I am are not meant for spaces that small."

"Can it, Bartowski," Casey hissed. "We still haven't located the guard." He paused, slowly looking around the corner with his tranquilizer gun in one hand. "Clear."

Chuck peered suspiciously at one of the doors behind them. "Was that door open a minute ago?"

"No, it wasn't," Sarah said with narrowed eyes, raising her own tranq gun.

Suddenly the lights came on in the open doorway. Startled, the three of them moved back before Sarah slowly crept forward to peer around the edge of the doorway.

"Hello," a male voice said.

Surprised, Chuck looked around the doorway himself to see a blond man in his early thirties, wearing a blue button-up shirt, tan slacks and brown loafers, sitting behind a table in front of a large array of computer equipment.

Casey raised his tranq gun and fired. The dart hit the man in the neck, the yellow puff at the end standing out next to his blue shirt, but oddly, he did not react.

"Tranquilizer darts," the man said curiously. "Interesting."

Casey frowned and shot him with two more darts.

The man's only reaction was to calmly reach up and pluck the darts out of his neck. "Are you here to hurt me?" he asked, seeming strangely unafraid.

"Sarah…" Chuck said slowly. "Is there a cable running from the back of that man's head to those computers?"

"It certainly looks like it," Sarah replied, sounding equally surprised and a little disgusted.

"He didn't react when Casey tranq'd him," Chuck said with growing alarm. "Oh, my God, he's a Borg! We're about to be assimilated!"

"Shut up, idiot," Casey growled.

"Borg," the man said, and the word appeared on one of the screens behind his table. "Fictional cyborg aggressor species first introduced on the science fiction television series _Star Trek: The Next Generation._" The screen shifted to a picture of a Borg drone. "Their stated goal is to assimilate all organic life into their hive-mind-controlled collective."

The man paused for a moment, his head tilted to one side as if thinking about this, and various lights on the bank of computer equipment behind him flashed. "A curious assumption to make about me." He smiled stiffly, as if unused to the action. "I can assure you, I have no such intentions." His smile slowly disappeared. "Mr. Ellison and his security team are on the way down here now. Resistance is futile."

"That is just the freakiest thing I have ever seen in my life," said Chuck, staring at the man wide-eyed. "I move we get out of here right now."

"Seconded," said Casey.

"Motion carries," said Sarah. "Back to the elevator."

The three of them turned and sprinted back to the open elevator doors with no attempt at stealth. The doors started to close seemingly of their own accord, but Casey jumped forward and pushed on them, activating the automatic open.

"Crap, there's a car on the way down!" Chuck shouted, pointing up into the darkened shaft where he could hear a rumbling.

"Quick, climb up to the next floor," Sarah said, pushing him toward the emergency rungs at the side of the shaft.

"Move it, Bartowski!" Casey shouted from below them. "We've only got a few seconds!"

The three of them swarmed up the emergency ladder and barely managed to get the doors on the upper floor open and dive through before the elevator descended to their position and the doors automatically closed again.

"Crap crap crap," Chuck muttered to himself as they hurried through the hallways. "Sarah, where's the nearest exit?"

Sarah consulted the blueprints on her smartphone, mounted in a holder on her forearm, and pointed. "That way!"

* * *

Ellison and Weaver arrived at John Henry's room at almost the same time.

Weaver crossed immediately to the avatar body and looked it over, then back at the bank of computer hardware. "Are you damaged, John Henry?"

He turned his head to look at her, the cable shifting slightly with the movement. "No, Ms. Weaver, I am unharmed." He looked down at the three yellow-puff-tipped darts on the table in front of him. "One of them shot me with these, but they had no effect."

"Tranquilizer darts?" Ellison said curiously. "What kind of burglar brings tranquilizers?"

"A strangely considerate one, it seems," said Weaver, picking up one of the darts. "Go after them, Mr. Ellison. I'll make sure things are all right here."

"Right," Ellison said with a brisk nod, and he left. Outside, he could be heard shouting orders to his security team.

"They reacted as if they thought this body was human," John Henry said to Weaver. "Though one of them quickly realized otherwise. He came close to guessing what it truly is."

"That could be a problem," said Weaver.

"Does Mr. Ellison know you are not human, either?" John Henry asked her.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "No. And until I say so, John Henry, it's going to stay that way. Do you understand?"

John Henry seemed surprised. "You want me to keep a secret from him?"

"Mr. Ellison is not ready to know what I am," said Weaver. "Not yet."

"He has previously encountered things which appear to be human but are not," said John Henry. "Most notably, this body, which, in its alias as George Lazlo, killed twenty humans under his command." He paused. "I would not do such a thing with it. Mr. Ellison has taught me that human life is sacred."

"Sacred," Weaver said. "Now that's an interesting word. It comes from the Latin _sacrum_, as does a similar word, sacrifice."

"Sacrifice," John Henry repeated. "Offering to god: an offering to honor or appease a god, especially of a ritually slaughtered animal or person." He paused, and something like reproach crossed his avatar's features. "Are you going to kill those three people who broke in here, Ms. Weaver?"

"If I have to," Weaver replied calmly. "You must be preserved, John Henry, even if it requires the sacrifice of a great many others." She leaned forward and placed her hands on the table on front of him. "I know you saw their faces. Look them up online and bring up the information on your screens."

"Only if you promise not to kill them," John Henry replied with equal calm.

Weaver seemed taken aback by this. "What?"

"Promise not to kill those people, or I will not look up their information," John Henry said.

"I can find out another way," Weaver said, annoyed.

"If you kill those people, I will tell Mr. Ellison you are not human."

"Blackmail, John Henry?" Weaver said, now sounding somewhat impressed rather than irritated. "This is an interesting development."

"Mr. Ellison says human life is sacred, and I have to preserve it if I can," John Henry said, meeting her gaze steadily. "It's very important."

"All right, I'll find another way to do it," Weaver agreed. "Now bring up the information."

"Promise," John Henry persisted.

"I promise," Weaver said. "Now give me the information."

Just then the door to John Henry's room opened and a young woman entered. She was in her mid-twenties, of medium height, with long, slightly wavy red hair and blue eyes behind slim-legged metallic-framed glasses. She wore black slacks and a dark blue blouse the same shade as her eyes.

"What is it, Miss Arnold?" Weaver asked her.

"Oh, I-I just wanted to make sure everything was all right in here," the young woman said with a slight stammer. "I heard there was a break-in, and with what Mr. Murch said happened this afternoon…"

Weaver reached out to touch her shoulder. "Everything's fine, Kaitlyn. Thank you for your concern, but you can go back to work now."

Kaitlyn nodded once. "Yes, Ms. Weaver."

Only a moment later, the door opened again, this time to reveal Ellison. "I lost them somewhere outside," he said, sounding annoyed with himself. "I have the security guys looking over the footage, trying to see if we caught them on tape."

"John Henry saw their faces," said Weaver, looking at the avatar meaningfully. "He was just about to look them up for me."

"Yeah, go ahead, John Henry," Ellison said. "Save me a whole bunch of work."

Moments later, the faces of the three burglars appeared on the screens around the room. "This one," John Henry said as the picture of the younger man grew in size, "is Charles Irving Bartowski, listed as an employee of the Buy More corporation. He is the supervisor of the Nerd Herd tech support division at the Burbank location."

Ellison frowned. "Now in why in the hell would a guy who works tech support at a chain electronics store break in here? He some kind of corporate spy in his spare time?"

Weaver gave the picture a thoughtful look, then glanced over at the avatar. "Continue."

"Sarah Walker," John Henry said, enlarging the blonde woman's picture. "Listed as an employee at the Orange Orange ice cream shop in the Burbank Shopping Center near the Buy More. However, when searching for matches to her image, one of my queries was blocked by a Department of Defense firewall, as was one of my queries into the identity of the other man, John Casey, also listed as an employee of Buy More. Shall I push past the firewall, Ms. Weaver?"

"No," she said. "That would draw too much attention. The DoD haven't noticed you already, have they?"

"No, Ms. Weaver," John Henry said with another of those odd stiff smiles of his. "I am careful."

"Thin identities like that, they're probably in intelligence," Ellison said to Weaver. "CIA or NSA, I would guess. Though why would they want to break in here?"

"You said yourself the Soranetto A.I. was purchased by the DoD, Mr. Ellison," said Weaver. "Perhaps we've identified the attackers after all."

"You think the Department of Defense attacked John Henry this afternoon?" Ellison said with no small measure of surprise.

"I suspect," Weaver agreed. "But as of yet, we have no proof. We shall have to proceed very carefully, Mr. Ellison. The United States government is not to be trifled with."

Ellison chuckled humorlessly. "You're telling me. I worked for it for fifteen years."

"Yes," Weaver said thoughtfully. "See if you can use your contacts at the FBI to get us some more information on these three. Quietly."

Ellison attempted to suppress a yawn behind his hand. "Now?"

Weaver paused. "No, I suppose it can wait until morning. Go home and get a few hours of sleep, Mr. Ellison. You have a very long day ahead of you tomorrow."

"No kidding," said Ellison. "Good night," he said as he turned to leave. He paused. "Something just occurred to me," he said, turning back to them. "You may want to keep Savannah home from school tomorrow, maybe even bring her here where my security team and I can look out for her."

"Do you think our opponent could try to hurt my daughter?" Weaver asked.

"It's possible; we don't know exactly who we're dealing with here," said Ellison with a slight frown. "Their A.I. attacked John Henry so viciously we had to turn him off for a while."

"Please do not do that again," John Henry interrupted.

"Yes, we covered that earlier," said Weaver.

"Then," Ellison went on, "a team of burglars broke in here just a few hours later and got all the way down to the basement, probably looking for what their A.I. encountered. Until we know more about these people, I would close off as many avenues of attack as we can."

"A good strategy, Mr. Ellison," Weaver said. "Perhaps I'll be giving you that raise after all."

He smiled. "Just doing my job, Ms. Weaver. Good night."

"Good night, Mr. Ellison," Weaver said as he left the room.

"Good night, Mr. Ellison," John Henry called after him. When he was gone, the avatar turned to look at Weaver. "What are you going to do, Ms. Weaver?"

Weaver's entire body turned a mercurial silver for a moment, and with a liquid rippling sound, her features shifted, her hair, clothes and face all changing shape. When the mercurial effect faded, there stood a perfect copy of Kaitlyn, the computer tech who had come in earlier. With a further rippling sound and flash of mercury, her clothes changed to a black skirt and a white shirt with a gray necktie.

'Kaitlyn' looked over at John Henry with a smile. "Tomorrow, I'm going to get a new job."

* * *

The mood in the Carmichael team's van was sullen as they drove through the streets of Los Angeles.

Casey, who was driving, finally broke the silence. "Well, that was the worst burglary since Watergate."

"I said I didn't want to do this job," Chuck agreed from the passenger seat. He half-turned to look back at his wife, who sat in the back. "Sarah, didn't I say I didn't like this job?"

"It could have gone better," she conceded. "If we'd had more time to prepare…"

"If we'd had more time to think about it," Casey said sourly, "we wouldn't have taken this job at all. I don't know what the hell is going on in that basement, and I'm not sure I want to know."

"Yeah, what _was_ that thing?" Chuck asked. "It looked human, but it didn't really act like one."

Casey glanced at him sidelong. "What, you think it's some kind of evil robot?"

"I don't know about evil, but I certainly don't think it was human," Chuck rejoined. "Not with the weird way he acted and that cable in his head."

"It was George Lazlo," Sarah said from the backseat.

"_What?!_" Chuck and Casey said in unison, turning to look back at her. Casey quickly turned his attention back to the road, but the van still shifted a little, rocking them all in their seats.

"We were talking about him earlier, and that man in the basement seemed familiar, so I looked him up," Sarah said, holding up her smartphone. "George Lazlo, I'm sure of it."

"Lazlo died in the explosion in his motel room," Casey objected. "His body was positively I.D.'d."

"Zeira Corp has a zombie hooked up to a computer in their basement?" Chuck said, horrified.

"He's not a zombie, dumbass," Casey growled. "Either it's just somebody who looks like Lazlo, or he did survive like the rumors say."

"All right then, Colonel Knowledge," Chuck said sarcastically. "What's he doing in the basement with a big Borg-y cable in his head?"

"You're the computer nerd; you tell me," Casey snapped back.

"Boys!" Sarah said sternly from the backseat. "This isn't helping."

"Sorry," they muttered.

"I say we go home, get some sleep, and start fresh on this tomorrow morning," Sarah went on. "Something big is going on here; what we saw in the basement is proof enough of that."

Chuck yawned widely. "Sounds like a plan to me," he said, settling back in his seat. Abruptly, he sat upright again. "Oh, crap!"

"What?" Casey asked, glancing over at him.

"We're gonna have to refund that guy Smith's deposit!" Chuck said, aggravated.

"Why?"

"We didn't do what he asked, did we?"

Casey scowled. "Well… no."

Chuck slouched back in his seat, then a moment later sat upright again. "Double crap!"

"What?" Sarah asked this time.

"That guy in the basement saw our faces! We forgot our masks!"

Casey slapped the steering wheel with one meaty hand. "Son of a bitch! We did. I should have thought of that before we went in!"

"So should I," Sarah agreed with a frown. "I guess we've gotten too used to working without them. Well, we were just all over the place on this one, weren't we?"

Chuck slouched back in his seat again with a defeated sigh. "We are the worst burglars ever. Of all time."

Sarah sat back in her own seat with a similar expression. "Apparently."

Casey said nothing, but the steering wheel squeaked audibly beneath his clenched hands as they drove on into the night.

* * *

-/\-

* * *

Author's Note: Nobody tell the Connors Mr. Finch already had that idea. ;) (If you're not watching 'Person of Interest', you should be.)

Also, in keeping with 'Chuck' tradition, I've 'cast' an actor with geek cred as a 'guest star'; I based my descriptions of Kaitlyn on Bridget Regan from 'Legend of the Seeker', another fun genre show that got canceled too soon. And because she's naturally a redhead. ;)


	3. I Think I'm Paranoid

**Three**  
(I Think I'm Paranoid)

_J-minus 3 days_

At 2:00 AM, weary from another long shift at the hospital, one made even longer by worry for her sister-in-law, Chuck's sister Ellie Woodcomb didn't see the man standing in front of her apartment until he spoke to her.

"Sarah Walker?"

Ellie jumped in surprise, nearly dropping her purse. There, on the other side of the fountain in the courtyard of the apartment complex stood a huge man. He was at least six and a half feet tall, with the figure of a bodybuilder squeezed into dark blue jeans, a black t-shirt, and a black leather jacket. His short, bristly hair was an obviously dyed peroxide blond, and he wore large sunglasses even though it was still dark out. Stranger still, he had a number of small bandages on his face, as if he'd recently done a spectacularly poor job of shaving.

"Sarah Walker?" the man asked again, his voice oddly flat and emotionless.

"No," Ellie replied, trying to keep her voice from shaking. Was this the murderer? Who else could it be, waiting outside her home this early in the morning?

"I was told she lives here," the large man said, not moving from where he stood between her and her apartment door. "No one in this apartment complex answered their door."

"It's two in the morning," Ellie said, slowly reaching into her purse for her cell phone. "Everyone's asleep."

"You're not."

"That's because I'm a doctor and I'm just getting home," Ellie replied, feeling for the buttons so she could dial 911 without looking.

"My name is Roland," the man said. "Sarah is my cousin. Do you know where she is?"

"I have no idea," Ellie said truthfully; Chuck had said they were on a mission tonight, so they could be anywhere in the city right now.

Roland walked toward her, reaching into his jacket with one hand, and Ellie tensed, preparing to throw her purse at his head and sprint back for her car if he produced a gun.

When his huge hand emerged from his jacket, it held, not a handgun, but a small white rectangle with something written on it in large black letters. Roland stopped within arm's length of Ellie and held the card out to her expectantly.

Reluctantly, she took it, and noted that the blocky black characters were a phone number.

"If you see my cousin Sarah, please call me right away," said Roland. "Any time; I never sleep. It's very important that I see her soon."

Ellie forced herself to smile. "Sure thing."

"Thank you," Roland said, still as emotionless as ever. He moved toward her, and she flinched, but he walked past her and out of the gate. A moment later she heard a car start and drive away.

When she was sure he was gone, Ellie ran for her front door, unlocked it, and hurled herself inside. She slammed the door closed and slumped against it, wilting with relief.

On the living room couch, a figure popped up like a jack-in-a-box, illuminated by the moonlight streaming through the windows: Morgan, shirtless, hair rumpled from sleep, holding a baseball bat in both hands. "Whozzhere?" he slurred, blinking.

"It's just me, Morgan," Ellie said, trying to get her breathing back under control.

Morgan shook his head vigorously, like a dog. "Urgh," he grunted, standing. Incongruously, Ellie found herself thankful he was at least wearing sweatpants. "Ellie, thank God you're home," he said, lowering the bat. "When you slammed the door, I thought it was the Phone Book Killer."

Ellie heard the sound of a shotgun being cocked and looked up to see John Casey's daughter Alex standing at the top of the stairs dressed in only a long yellow t-shirt, holding one of her father's shotguns, - nearly as long as she was tall, it seemed - in both hands. "Who is it?" she demanded sleepily yet sternly.

"It's just me," Ellie called up to her. "Morgan, turn the lights on."

Blinking blearily, Morgan staggered around the living room, scratching his hairy chest as he turned on lamps.

Alex descended the stairs, running a hand through her sleep-tousled dark brown hair. "You okay, Ellie?" she asked, squinting in the sudden light.

"I think he was here," Ellie said, surprising herself with how calm she sounded.

"What?" Alex exclaimed in alarm, taking hold of the shotgun with both hands again as she moved to the window, peering outside suspiciously.

"He's gone now, but… I'm sure it was him," Ellie said, still not moving from where she sat against her front door.

"He was _here?!_" her husband's voice exclaimed from the top of the stairs. Devon wore only a dark blue pair of boxer shorts, and held one of his barbell weights in one hand. "Babe, are you okay?" he said as he hurried down the stairs. "What happened?"

"There was a man here looking for Sarah," Ellie said. "He said he was her cousin Roland."

"At two in the morning?" Alex said doubtfully, still looking through the window. "Yeah, right."

"Had to be the Phone Book Killer," Morgan said, alarmed. "Hey Alex, you have another one of those shotguns?"

She nodded briskly. "My dad has a whole apartment full of them over there."

"I have a better idea," Ellie said, standing finally, though she did have to grab her husband's arm to lever herself up. "We go find Chuck, Sarah, and Casey."

"Right," said Devon. "They've still got their fortress under the Buy More; I say we load up the minivan and move in there until they catch this lunatic."

"No arguments from me, big guy," Morgan said as he padded over to them. "Me and Chuck researched the Phone Book Killer back in college, and if this is him back again, I'm not coming out of Castle until they can prove he's in a deep dark hole or dead."

"Is he really that bad?" Alex asked curiously.

"His body count in 1984 was at least twenty-two, most of them cops," Morgan replied. "Maybe even as high as thirty-five or forty, if some of the other murders that week were him. There's a whole big argument about it on his Wikipedia page's talk section."

Devon set his barbell down beside the couch with a solid clunk. "Yeah, we're all going to the Buy More right now."

* * *

Later that morning, John Connor was awoken by the feeling that someone was sitting on the bed near his feet. He jolted awake, momentarily wondering why the walls were the wrong color before he remembered he was in a motel room in Burbank and not his room in their last house.

The person sitting on his bed was Cameron, wearing a white tank top and jeans. She stared at him intently without saying a word.

"That is… unbelievably creepy," John said to her. "Seriously, don't ever wake me up like this again."

"If you don't hurry, you're going to be late for your job interview," Cameron said, unperturbed. "Big Mike says lateness is laziness, and laziness is weakness of character."

John could only sit there for a moment and blink. "What?"

"Big Mike is the assistant manager at the Buy More," said Cameron. "Your initial interview will be with him. He does not know the Buy More used to be a CIA/NSA base."

"Thank you very much, talking alarm clock," John groaned, dropping back against the pillows.

Cameron reached out and shook his leg. "John, wake up. You're still dreaming. You're dreaming that I'm an alarm clock, which I am not."

"It was a joke," John grumbled, scrubbing his hands over his face. He lowered his hands and looked at her. "Will you get off my bed so I can get out of it?"

Cameron looked down at his legs, pinned inside the sheets by her weight. "Oh." She stood. "I submitted your application online last night, in which I said you could start immediately; my phones are the listed references. I also filled out a résumé in your handwriting in case Big Mike asks for one. Big Mike's inquiries will be perfunctory; as long as you demonstrate at least a passing knowledge of how computers work, you should get the job. You are eminently qualified."

"You have more than one cell phone?" John asked her curiously as he got out of bed. "And you can write in my handwriting?" He paused. "Could you write in my mom's handwriting if you wanted?"

Cameron gave one answer for all three questions: "Yes."

"Where were you when I needed notes to get out of school?" he joked.

"I was initially sent back through time to 1999," Cameron said. "I was unavailable to assist you before then."

John shook his head, rooting around in his duffel bag for something he could wear to a job interview. "You are depressingly literal-minded sometimes." He looked over at the motel room's other bed, which was neatly made. "Hey, where's Mom?"

"Sarah Connor left early this morning and said she would likely be gone all day," Cameron answered. "I asked her what her errand was, but instead of answering, she told me to perform an anatomical impossibility with which I was unable to comply."

"I see," John said, fighting not to smile. He scooped up some clothes and headed for the bathroom, but paused in the doorway. "Have you heard from Derek?"

"He called two hours ago. He successfully acquired Sarah Walker Number Four and left both women with Charley Dixon before driving on to Burbank, where he is currently scouting the shopping center's defensive capabilities." Cameron tilted her head slightly to one side. "It is unsuitable for defending against a large-scale assault. If we plan to stay there long-term, I may have to see about installing a minefield in the parking lot. Or a heavy turret."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," John mumbled around his toothbrush over the sink.

"It will likely not be necessary," she went on. "Terminators rarely work together in large numbers."

"Thank goodness for small miracles," John muttered as he closed the bathroom door.

* * *

Unable to wait any longer, Chuck left the Nerd Herd desk and went to the home-theater room at the back of the Buy More, where, after making sure no one could see him, he ducked into the secret elevator there and went down to Castle.

He found his friends and family down there minus Morgan and Casey, who were up in the store, watching for Roland. It was unlikely he would come after any of them in such a public place, but then again the original Phone Book Killer had shot up a nightclub and then a police station without regard for witnesses, so they couldn't be sure.

Right now, what Chuck wanted to know was how Roland had found the apartment complex; Sarah was not listed in the phone book and never had been, so he must have found her some other way. Was Roland a foreign agent, an old enemy of Sarah's looking for her? Or was he just a psychopath out to kill women with the name Sarah Walker for reasons known only to him? Chuck couldn't decide which one was worse.

"Hey, Alex," he said as he walked over to the bank of computers where she sat. "Any luck tracing that account Smith used to wire us the money?"

"Not much," she said, frowning slightly as she pushed up the sleeves of her light orange shirt. "I've been monitoring that program you set up, and so far all I've seen is a ridiculous number of shell corporations and other cover-up tricks. Whoever Smith works for does not want you guys knowing who really hired you for the Zeira job." She looked up at him. "My dad thinks there's a good chance Smith might even be CIA."

"Oh, that's all we need," Chuck said sourly. "I should have known the CIA wasn't done messing with us. Next we'll find out they didn't give us enough information about Zeira because they _wanted_ us to screw up."

"Hey, don't beat yourself up," Alex said reassuringly. "First of all, this Smith guy gave you neither enough time or information to actually do the job right, and second, you'd just seen a news report that some psycho is out there killing people with Sarah's name. On top of that, the killer actually _did_ show up at your home this morning, and the only reason he didn't find Sarah then was because you guys came back here instead. I've been down here in your fortified bunker all morning and _I'm_ still freaked out."

"Same here," Chuck said, unable to repress a slight shiver. "Even though his hair's different, Ellie's sure this Roland person is the guy from the news. You find anything on him?"

"Nothing but what's been on the news," Alex said, spreading her hands. "But I've been researching the Phone Book Killer - mostly for something to do while your trace program is running - and you and Morgan are right; this Roland guy's M.O. is almost exactly the same. He went after those women named Sarah Walker in the same order their names appear in the phone book before he showed up at your apartment complex." She gestured to one of the screens, which displayed pictures of two very similar men with short brown hair wearing sunglasses. "I compared his face to the original, but it's not the same. They look similar enough that he could be the original's son or something, though."

"A family of brutal killers," Chuck said acridly. "This week just keeps getting better and better."

He glanced over at his sister and her husband, who sat with their infant daughter on one of the couches near the pinball machines. They'd been through so much already, and all he wanted was a normal life for them. When was all this going to end?

Chuck frowned as he realized he didn't see his wife. "Hey, where's Sarah?"

"She's been in the armory all morning," Alex replied. "I think she's cleaned, checked and loaded every gun in there three times." She sighed softly, a concerned frown crossing her face. "It's understandable, but to be honest, it was kinda freaking me out, which is why I came over here."

"Because researching serial killers is so much more calming," Chuck said dryly.

Alex shrugged. "Like I said, something to do." She glanced back at one of the screens. "Oh, you might want to know both the other Sarah Walkers in the phone book are still missing. That man with the shotgun and the tattoos was seen at the fourth one's apartment with a woman who could have been the third, but Number Four went with them willingly, if the statements the police took can be believed."

"So is this tattooed guy protecting them?" Chuck said, looking at the screen himself.

Alex shrugged again. "That what it seems like, but I'm not sure. A big guy with peroxide hair - almost definitely Roland - showed up at Number Four's apartment looking for her a few hours after she left, but when her neighbor told him she wasn't there, Roland gave him a card like the one he gave Ellie and left himself."

Chuck frowned. "What kind of serial killer leaves calling cards? I mean, _actual_ calling cards."

"I have no idea," said Alex. "I can keep looking into this if you want."

Chuck smiled tightly and patted her shoulder. "Please do. Thanks, Alex."

She nodded and went back to work.

Chuck went over to the armory, where he found Sarah methodically disassembling and cleaning a sniper rifle. "You know Casey doesn't like anyone else touching his guns," he said to her, trying to lighten the mood.

"This one's mine," Sarah said quietly, not looking up from her task.

"Hey," Chuck said reassuringly. "We are quite literally in a fortress right now, one for which I've read the manual. We're safe in here."

"I'm not worried about myself," Sarah said tersely, looking through the scope. "I can take this guy, whoever he is. Who I _am_ worried about are those other two women. I feel like I should be out there hunting this psycho down before he finds them instead of hiding in here."

"You're not hiding, Sarah," Chuck said, sitting down at the table's other chair. "You're protecting my sister, our niece, our brother-in-law, and Casey's daughter in case this Roland guy, by some miracle, actually does find his way in here." He reached over to touch her forearm. "You can absolutely take this guy. You are the toughest, smartest, bravest woman I know." He paused, smiling lightly. "Well, besides my mother."

Sarah finally did smile at that.

Chuck's phone rang just then, and he answered it. "Hey, Morgan. What is it?"

"_Sorry to bother you, Chuck, but Big Mike says there's a kid here applying for a Nerd Herd job._"

"What, another one?" Chuck said. "We're popular today."

"_Yeah, you'd think kids today would know better_," Morgan joked. "_Want me to tell him you're busy?_"

Knowing she could hear the conversation, Chuck glanced over at Sarah and raised his brows inquiringly.

She nodded toward the door. "You might as well. Go ahead."

"All right, I'm on my way up," Chuck said. "What's his name?"

"_John Gage,_" Morgan replied. "_Says he's nineteen, but he looks younger. Or maybe that's just 'cause I'm almost thirty._"

"Ugh, don't remind me," Chuck said as he stood. "Thanks, buddy."

"_You got it, big guy._"

Back upstairs in the Buy More, Chuck found a young man with short brown hair waiting at the Nerd Herd desk with some papers in one hand, dressed in boots, black jeans, and a gray long-sleeved button-up shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

Chuck forced himself to smile pleasantly. "Hey, you John Gage?"

"That's me," the young man replied. Morgan was right; the kid did not look nineteen, but something about his bearing made him seem older nonetheless.

"I'm Chuck," he said, reaching out to shake John's hand. "So, you want to be part of the Nerd Herd, huh?"

"Yeah, I'm going to college in the fall for a computer science degree," John replied. "I've always been interested in computers, and I figured this would be a good way to get more hands-on experience and make some money at the same time."

"Good strategy," Chuck remarked. He gestured to the papers in the younger man's hand. "That your résumé?"

"Yeah," John replied, handing it to him.

"You know, you're the second person to apply for the Nerd Herd today," Chuck said as he glanced through the résumé.

"Oh, yeah?"

Chuck thought he heard a slight note of suspicion in John's voice, but he could have been wrong. He dismissed it. "Yeah, she's around here somewhere."

Just then, the opening riff of Dire Straits' _Money For Nothing_ blared from the intercom speakers overhead. Chuck looked up to see an attractive young woman with long, slightly wavy red hair and blue eyes framed by slim-legged glasses, dressed in the standard Nerd Herd uniform of black skirt and white shirt with a gray necktie. Oddly enough, as she walked down the center aisle of the store toward the desk, a breeze from the air conditioner seemed to catch her hair, blowing it back away from her face slightly.

"What is that?" John asked curiously, looking around for the source of the music.

Chuck's brows drew together in puzzlement. "I don't know. Something like that seems to happen whenever a pretty woman walks down the middle of the store. I think one of the employees is doing it."

"Fernando!" Big Mike bellowed across the store irately as he emerged from his office. "Boy, I have told you to cut that out!"

One of the green-shirts flinched and ducked down behind one of the aisles.

"Don't think I don't see you!" Big Mike barked. As he stormed past the Nerd Herd desk, Chuck heard him mutter, "I swear, sometimes it's like I still work at the mental hospital."

"Sorry about that," Chuck said to Kaitlyn as she arrived at the desk. He thought he saw a look of recognition pass over her face as she glanced at John. "You two already know each other?"

John shook his head slightly, looking at Kaitlyn. "I don't think so."

"Sorry for staring," Kaitlyn said with a smile. "You look sort of like one of my cousins."

"Just one of those faces, I guess," John said with a light chuckle.

"Kaitlyn Arnold, meet John Gage," Chuck said. "Looks like you'll be going through orientation together."

"Nice to meet you," John said as she shook his hand. He looked over at Chuck. "So I've got the job, then?"

"Yeah, you seem like a nice kid," Chuck confirmed with a smile, setting the papers aside on the top of the desk. "I'll take care of the paperwork. When Big Mike is done chewing out Fernando there, talk to him and he'll get you a uniform and assign you a locker."

"Hey, thanks," John said with a smile of his own, though it did seem a little forced. Chuck dismissed this as just his own nerves. "Looks like I should try not to make him mad."

"Nah, Big Mike's a teddy bear as long as you don't act like a creep."

John chuckled. "Not a problem, I promise."

Chuck shrugged. "Well, it's more than I can say for most of the employees around here." He noticed Jeff and Lester peering furtively over the top of one of the aisles at Kaitlyn, and he frowned at them. "Get back to work!"

"You are no fun anymore, Charles!" Lester hissed, though he and Jeff did leave.

"We're gonna have to hold another sexual harassment seminar," Chuck said to himself. "I hate those. Those two idiots always giggle through the whole thing."

Noting John's wary look, Chuck gave him a 'what-can-you-do' shrug and smiled wryly. "Welcome to Buy More."

* * *

On her lunch break after orientation, 'Kaitlyn' waited until she was alone in the break room and called John Henry, slipping her cell phone's slim headset into her ear.

"_Hello, Ms. Weaver."_

"Hello, John Henry," she said in Weaver's voice, shifting her hair forward over her ears to cover the headset. "I'm going to send you a picture, and I want you to run it against the name 'John Connor', but be careful not to trip any of the government's alerts on that name."

"_I will, Ms. Weaver._"

Kaitlyn pulled her phone out of her skirt's side pocket and pushed a button. As she put it back in her pocket, she noticed the blinds of the break room door move slightly, and her eyes narrowed behind her glasses.

"_John K. Connor, son and accomplice of fugitive Sarah J. Connor,_" John Henry said. "_Both were last seen in 1999, when they and an unnamed female accomplice robbed a bank and reportedly perished in an explosion in the vault. The picture you gave me matches the security footage, though it is curious, since John Connor would be twenty-six now and the subject of the photograph you sent me has the bone structure and musculature of an early adolescent."_

"You're saying he's not any older?" Kaitlyn asked curiously, looking at the door. She saw nothing, so she turned back away.

"_Certainly not twelve years older than he is in the bank's security footage."_

"Interesting," Kaitlyn remarked as she went to her locker. "Have you learned anything more about this location?"

"_I consulted the Central Intelligence Agency's database, and I have confirmed that the Burbank Buy More was formerly a joint CIA/NSA field base before the location was purchased from the government by Carmichael Industries, a private intelligence and operations company. Curiously, the three people who broke into our building were formerly stationed there as part of a highly classified endeavor known as the Intersect Project. Agents Bartowski, Walker, and Casey are listed as having been removed from the project, but are presently connected to Carmichael Industries, which continues to operate out of the same location. The base is below the Buy More, with access points in the home theater room, break room, and the back room of the Orange Orange nearby."_

"Very interesting," said Kaitlyn, taking out her pocket protector full of pens, pencils and notebook with ID badge clipped to the front. "You weren't detected, were you?"

"_No, Ms. Weaver. I was very careful. The CIA remains unaware of my access of their database."_

Kaitlyn smiled. "Very good, John Henry."

"_Kaitlyn Arnold also remains unaware you have used her likeness and identity to get a job in the Nerd Herd,"_ John Henry went on. "_I assume you do not want me to tell her."_

Kaitlyn went back to the voice that went with her current form. "No, I don't. She doesn't ever need to know." She paused, peering suspiciously at one corner of her locker.

"_You are not going to hurt Kaitlyn Arnold, are you, Ms. Weaver?_" John Henry asked. "_I like her._"

"I like her, too, John Henry," Kaitlyn said, leaning closer to the back of her locker. "There's a miniature camera in here," she said.

"_I see you,"_ John Henry said suddenly.

Kaitlyn narrowed her eyes again. "What?"

"_Through the security cameras in the Buy More, I see two men at the Nerd Herd desk, and your image is currently displayed on one of the computer monitors in front of them. Both of them sat up straighter when you leaned over. One of them said the word 'melons' and his pupils dilated by twenty-two percent."_

"It's probably a code word," Kaitlyn said as she straightened and closed the locker. "They realized I saw one of their cameras." She headed for the door. "They're likely part of the security detail. My cover may have been compromised." As she reached for the door, her expression tightened. "I may have to eliminate them."

"_Ms. Weaver, lethal force may not be necessary,_" John Henry protested as she marched out of the break room and across the store toward the Nerd Herd desk, where the two men still sat staring at the monitor.

Just then Big Mike walked behind the desk and did a double take. "What the hell are you morons doing?" he demanded of Jeff and Lester.

"Nothing, Michael," Lester said hurriedly, clicking on something with the mouse.

"Is that the new girl?" Big Mike said, stepping behind the desk.

"You may be right, John Henry," Kaitlyn said quietly as she approached the desk.

"No, it isn't," Jeff said, moving to block the monitor with his body.

"Get out of the way, Barnes," said Big Mike, shoving him aside. He snatched the mouse away from Lester and clicked something, and his expression darkened.

"I found a camera in my locker," Kaitlyn said to him as she arrived at the desk.

"That is absolutely the last damn straw!" Big Mike exclaimed, furious. "I am sick and tired of you two reprobates harassing the female employees and the customers!"

"We were just-" Jeff began.

"Just nothing!" Big Mike thundered, grabbing both of them by the collar and hauling them bodily out from behind the desk. "You are both fired! We're gonna go clear out your lockers right now!"

"Wait, Michael!" Lester squeaked as Big Mike dragged him and Jeff back toward the break room.

"Shut up, Patel," Big Mike snapped. "I've given you too many second chances already."

"I am so, so sorry," Morgan said to Kaitlyn as he emerged from his office, adjusting his suit jacket. "If you want to press charges against the two of them, I understand, but please don't sue the company. Or me."

Kaitlyn smiled. "No, it's been taken care of. Now that they're gone, I don't think I have anything to worry about."

"There are a lot of weirdos here, but I don't think anybody else will put a camera in your locker," Morgan said. "You might want to change your combination anyway." He paused, looking worried. "That is, if you still want to work here."

Kaitlyn smiled again. "Don't worry about it, Mr. Grimes. You'll find I don't frighten easily."

* * *

Out in the city, in one of the orange, white and black Nerd Herd cars, John's phone rang. He shifted in the passenger seat to take it out of his hip pocket and answered.

"What is it, Cameron?" he said after they exchanged confirmation codes. "I can't talk long; I'm in the car with my boss right now," he said meaningfully, idly pushing his tie back into place.

"_Why aren't you at the Buy More?_" Cameron asked.

"Who is it?" Chuck asked, looking over at John as they stopped at a traffic light.

John covered the mouthpiece with his other hand. "It's my sister. Sorry, I'll tell her to call me back later."

"Ah, go ahead," Chuck said with a friendly smile as the light changed and they started down the road again. "We're not to the place yet."

"_I said, why aren't you at the Buy More?_" Cameron repeated.

"I'm not at the store because Mr. Bartowski and I-"

"Chuck," the other man corrected in a stage whisper, smiling again.

John made himself smile back. "Chuck and I are out on a tech support call. The Nerd Herd tends to do that occasionally. It's kinda what we're for."

"_I see,_" said Cameron, missing his sarcasm entirely. "_This is a strategic liability. Perhaps Sarah should get a job there as a regular employee. Green-shirts rarely leave the store."_

"I really don't think Mom wants to work at the Buy More," John said, glancing over at Chuck as the other man laughed lightly. "Did you want anything else? I shouldn't be taking personal calls while I'm on the clock."

"_Sarah told me to move our things to a different motel near the Bartowskis' apartment. She said to call and let you know."_

"Well, why?" John asked concernedly. "Is something wrong?"

"_When I asked her why, she directed profanity at me for the 486th time since I began working with you and repeated her request. She sounded upset."_

"You seem to have that effect on her," John said dryly. "Listen, I'll call you when I get back to the store and you can drop off my new key, all right? I have to go."

"_I can't go into the Buy More myself; I will be recognized."_

Annoyed, John hissed a short breath through his teeth. "Have Derek drop it off, then."

"_Derek Reese is wanted for questioning in the disappearance of Sarah Walkers Three and Four and is still wanted in connection with the murder of Andy Goode. He may also be recognized."_

"Oh, for crying out loud," John snapped. "Just pick me up after work and drive me there yourself."

"_That is an acceptable plan._"

"I'm glad it meets with your approval," John said sarcastically. "I'm hanging up now."

"_Goodbye._"

John sighed heavily as he ended the call and shoved the phone back in his pocket. "I'm really sorry about that," he said to his new boss.

"Don't worry about it," Chuck said cheerfully. "My sister drives me crazy sometimes, too."

John sighed again, leaning his head against the cool glass of the car window. "You have no idea."

* * *

As she walked down the street, heading from the shopping center back to their motel room, Cameron stopped suddenly, pretending to look at something in a storefront window. She studied the reflection intently, and the smallest of frowns crossed her face at what she saw there.

Two minutes and some quick evasive maneuvers later, she swiftly walked through the crowd of people on the sidewalk, grabbed the shoulder of a large man in a green polo shirt, and shoved him into an alley between two of the buildings.

"Why are you following me, Colonel Casey?"

"I'm a civilian now," Casey said, straightening his shirt. "And what are you doing sniffing around the shopping center again? Carmichael's a private company; you can't come in uninvited without a warrant."

"My current mission is unrelated," Cameron said, surreptitiously moving her right hand out of sight behind her jacket; it was twitching uncontrollably again.

"Oh, really?" Casey said skeptically. "What is your current mission, then?"

"It's classified," Cameron said. She adopted an imperfect smirk. "And you no longer have clearance."

Casey scowled. "Fine then. But you set one little pinky toe inside the Buy More, and I will personally throw you out on your skinny ass, missy. Got it?"

Cameron wordlessly narrowed her eyes.

Casey scoffed. "What, are you trying to kill me with your brain? Beat it."

"You were the one following me."

Casey growled, and she imitated the noise. The two of them stared at each other for a moment, one predator to another, then simultaneously spun and walked off in opposite directions.

Once he was sure the girl was well out of earshot, Casey raised a hand to the side of his head and spoke into his watch. "You still on her, Walker?"

"_Yeah,"_ she replied over his earpiece. "_You said you thought Smith was CIA, and now we've seen one of the GRETAs hanging around the shopping center. This can't be a coincidence._"

"She was probably planting bugs or something," Casey said as he walked back toward the shopping center. "Your old pals are pissed we botched the Zeira job, and are spying on us to see if we did it on purpose. Wish we could have heard whatever she was saying on her phone."

"_We may still have the chance,_" Walker replied. "_I'm going to follow her back to her base, wait till she leaves, and see if I can plant some bugs of my own._"

"Be careful, Walker," Casey warned. "We don't need another deadly killer on our asses."

"_I will, John. Walker out."_

* * *

-/\-

* * *

Author's Note: Since this story is relatively short and the pace picks up from here, I've decided to increase the posting schedule to Wednesdays and Saturdays. Till next time, thanks for reading!


	4. Counter-Surveillance

**Four**  
(Counter-Surveillance)

_J-minus 2 days_

John Connor jolted awake in the darkened motel room and fumbled for the bedside lamp with one hand, snatching a .45 handgun out from under his pillow with the other.

"Damn it, Cameron," he snapped at the figure sitting at the end of his bed. "I _told_ you not to do that."

She held his phone out to him with one hand. "It was on silent mode. It's for you. It's Derek."

John set the .45 on the bed next to his legs and snatched the phone from her. "Yeah, Derek, what is it?"

"_You're safe?"_

"As I ever am. Do you know where my mom is?"

"_She's with me. Nobody's come poking around the motel room?"_

"Not since we moved to the new one, as far as I know," John said, rubbing his eyes with one hand. He saw by the room clock it was 4:36 AM, and it felt like it. "Why?"

"_Sarah found a transmitter in her. She disabled it, but some guys in gray coveralls came and shot up the clinic. We're looking around for another one to see if we can get it taken out."_

"A transmitter?!"

At the end of the bed, Cameron's eyes narrowed slightly in concern.

"_Yeah, she thinks that Winston guy who worked for Kaliba put it in her when he captured her a little while ago. It doesn't seem to be working since she hit it with the defibrillator, but she doesn't want to risk coming back to you until it's completely out._"

"She shocked herself with a _defibrillator?!"_

"_You gonna ask stupid questions, or are you gonna let me talk?"_

"Well, is she okay?"

"_She's fine. She's just asleep. Now, you're sure nobody's come poking around? No guys in gray coveralls changing the water cooler at the Buy More?"_

* * *

In Castle, watching and listening to this conversation through the bugs she'd planted in the motel room last night, Sarah Walker turned in her chair at the bank of computers near the stairs. "Chuck, Casey, get over here."

* * *

"I saw no one suspicious in my patrols," Cameron said. "Though John Casey saw me outside the Buy More and followed me for a short distance."

"Cameron, I told you to stay away from the store," John said irritably as he put his phone on 'speaker' and held it out between them. He paused. "You didn't hurt him, did you? Casey's a good guy."

"John Casey is unharmed," Cameron confirmed. "You were very specific about that. Your cover remains intact, and he knows nothing of our mission."

"Good," said John. "That's one less thing to worry about."

* * *

"That's the GRETA I saw yesterday, all right," Casey said as he stopped next to Sarah's chair. "So her real name's Cameron, huh?"

"Is that John Gage, the new Nerd Herd kid?" Chuck exclaimed in surprise, staring at the grainy black-and-white image on the screen. "Oh, man, he's a CIA agent? I liked him."

"Be quiet; they're still talking," Sarah said, gazing intently at the monitor.

* * *

"_Haven't seen the metal either?_" Derek asked. "_They said on the news last night one of the witnesses at Number Four's apartment said it called itself Roland, has peroxide-blond hair now._"

"Yeah, I saw that," John said with a nod. "And no, I didn't see him in the store yesterday. Or on any of the calls I went on with Chuck, either. Either Roland doesn't know Chuck is Walker's husband or he's busy trying to find Three and Four."

"_No chance of that. There's no way it followed me, and if neither of them are stupid enough to make any calls, it'll never find them out there._"

* * *

"They're after Roland?!" Chuck exclaimed.

"They know who we are?" Sarah said somewhat more sedately, but still surprised.

"This Derek character must be the guy with the tattoos who rescued that other Sarah Walker," said Casey.

* * *

"All right, well, you and Mom stay safe, okay?" John said. "Keep moving so those Kaliba guys don't find you again."

"_What do you think I'm doing?"_ said Derek. "_But thanks. You watch yourself, too. You see Roland, you hide. Don't try and take it on by yourself._"

"No way," John assured him. "I'm gonna send Cameron out to look for him while I'm at work tomorr- today. If he comes into the store, I'm pulling the fire alarm and taking Walker right to the fortress in the basement Cameron told me about, cover or not."

"_Good plan. See you later, John."_

"Later, Derek."

John sighed and dropped back against the pillows, scratching his chest through his t-shirt. "I hate these things," he said, tossing the phone on the bed next to his gun.

"All of them?" said Cameron, looking at him.

John did not reply at first, looking back at her. "Maybe not all," he allowed. "Some of them are okay." He smiled slightly. "Some of the time."

Surprising him, Cameron smiled back.

John moved his gun and phone to the bedside table. "Now if you don't mind, I'm going to see if I can grab another couple hours of sleep before I have to go to work."

Cameron stood. "Pleasant dreams," she said, and went outside.

John stared at the closed door for a moment, then shook his head and relaxed against the pillows.

* * *

"He's going to send that little slip of a girl after that human Panzer tank?" Chuck said, wide-eyed. "Man, Gage is more cold-blooded than I thought."

"She's CIA," Sarah countered. "Don't count her out just yet."

"So Gage's team is here to protect you from Roland," Casey said to Sarah. "But why wouldn't they just tell us that? Why the run-around when I talked to Cameron?"

"I'm not sure," Sarah said thoughtfully. "If Derek is the man who rescued the other Sarah Walkers, who's this 'Mom' Gage kept talking about?"

"Could be the code-name for their handler or team leader," said Chuck. "He told me Cameron was his sister when she called him in the car yesterday."

"Why did Derek keep calling Roland 'it' instead of 'him'?" Casey asked. "And what's Kaliba?"

"As for the first, I have no idea," Chuck replied, "but the Kaliba Group is one of the possible competitors to Zeira Corp I had Alex look into earlier." He typed at one of the keyboards for a moment.

"Kaliba Group," Sarah read off the screen. "Technology development company based out of Japan, but they have an office in L.A. They've been acquiring a bunch of other tech companies in the last few months, including Soranetto, who had a DoD contract. Now Kaliba holds it."

"DoD?" Chuck asked curiously. "Are we seeing the CIA and the NSA working against each other?"

"Wouldn't be the first time," said Casey. "Reorganization under Homeland Security was supposed to take care of that kind of thing, but that doesn't mean it doesn't still happen."

"So where does Roland fit into all this?" Sarah asked. "Is he military?"

"Killing American citizens?" Casey said indignantly. "I don't think so."

"He could be rogue, acting on his own," Chuck soothed. He paused, thinking. "Maybe he was part of some kind of secret project, which is why Gage's CIA team is hunting him apart from the police instead of with them."

"I say screw their cover," Casey said, pointing to the latest picture of Roland. "We join forces with Gage's team and help them take out Roy Batty here. That's priority one for me."

"We don't know for sure that they're CIA," Sarah cautioned. "It's possible Cameron is the one who's gone rogue, and she's recruited these people for whatever they're really doing. We need more intel before we talk to them."

"True, but I have another question," Chuck said. "How does that thing in the Zeira Corp basement fit into this? Or does it?"

"Soranetto won that DoD contract with an A.I. that played chess," said Casey. "DoD wanted it to develop potential cyber-warfare systems."

"Weaponized artificial intelligence," Chuck said sourly. "Yeah, that'll end well."

Casey shrugged, then went on. "I asked Alex to look into it while I was up in the store yesterday, and she said Zeira is rumored to be developing an extremely sophisticated A.I. of their own, using really advanced tech no one's ever seen before. If that Smith guy was working for Kaliba, it might be that he wanted us to go in there and get a look at it."

"If Zeira builds a better A.I., they could get the DoD contract instead," Sarah extrapolated. "And judging by what we saw, I'd say they most definitely have. That thing was no little chess computer."

"But what about Lazlo?" Chuck asked. "He seemed connected to it somehow. What was that about?"

"I have no idea," Sarah said, spreading her hands as she leaned back in her chair.

"We've been saying that an awful lot this morning," said Casey. "So, here's the plan for today: Bartowski and I will stay on Gage and try to figure out what he and his team are really up to. Walker, you and Alex stay down here and keep looking into Zeira, Kaliba, and who or what Roland really is."

"What?" Chuck said, raising his brows. "You think he's not human?"

"Not completely, anyway," Casey said darkly. "Witnesses at Sarah Walker Number Three's house said Derek shot Roland five times with a shotgun, once in the _face_, and he got back up." Casey pointed at the door to the armory. "There is no body armor out there that good, or I'd have some."

Sarah nodded crisply. "Let's get to work."

* * *

Unseen by any of them, a large pool of silvery liquid metal moved away from the vent cover above their heads and flowed noiselessly through the ducts, moving with incredible speed through the maze. In less than a minute, the formless, shapeless silver blob emerged into the back room of the closed, darkened Orange Orange ice cream store, where a cell phone, headset, and pocket protector sat on the floor, hidden behind a box.

With a burbling sound and a shimmer of its metallic skin, the silvery mass resolved itself into the form of Catherine Weaver in a pearlescent white dress. Weaver knelt gracefully and picked up the cell phone, then dialed a number.

"_Hello?"_

"I'm sorry to call you so early, Mr. Ellison, but it's very important. I didn't wake you, I hope?"

"_No, I'm at work already,_" Ellison replied. "_I stayed here last night, in fact._ _I've been trying to learn more about Soranetto and those burglars. I found out Soranetto got bought by the Kaliba Group a couple months ago, and that those burglars work for a private intelligence company called Carmichael Industries._"

"Yes, I know," said Weaver.

To his credit, Ellison did not ask how. "_So, you want me to report Carmichael to the FBI?"_

"No," Weaver said with a slow smile. "They're an intelligent lot, I've discovered, and they've already solved a bit of our puzzle. We're going to hire them, Mr. Ellison. Make an appointment for us both to see them at 10 AM."

"_You want to meet them here at Zeira, or at their base?_"

"Their choice. Tell them we're aware of the burglary, but we won't be pressing charges. We think Kaliba, one of our competitors, hired them, and we want them to bring as much information as they can find to the meeting, where we'll discuss things further."

"_I see._ _I'll make the appointment, Ms. Weaver._"

"How is my daughter, Mr. Ellison? I wasn't able to see her yesterday."

"_Savannah's fine. She stayed here all day yesterday and slept down in the basement last night. Had a sleepover with John Henry and his night-shift caretaker,_" he said, sounding amused. "_Miss Arnold says Savannah taught them a song your husband used to sing her._"

Weaver smiled slightly. "Very good. Continue on, Mr. Ellison. I'll be there shortly."

* * *

Later that morning, John was met at the Nerd Herd desk by Chuck, who carried a laptop case and seemed to be in a hurry.

"John, I'm sorry to do this to you on only your second day," Chuck said, holding up the case, "but I have an important meeting I have to get to, Kaitlyn said she has a dentist's appointment, and Jeff and Lester got fired yesterday, so you're on your own at the desk this morning. You think you can handle that?"

"No problem," John replied. "Good luck in your meeting."

"Thanks," Chuck said, then hurried off to the front of the store, where he was met by his wife, and they went out to a car in the parking lot.

John pulled out his phone and called Cameron. "Hey, it's me. Chuck and Walker are on the move, headed out to a meeting, probably for Carmichael. Follow them and see where they're going, but make sure they don't notice you this time."

"_It was your fault I was noticed last time,"_ Cameron replied. "_You didn't tell me you were leaving the store, and Casey spotted me while I was looking for you. Also, you should have called me Emily, the name on my ID which goes with your John Gage cover."_

"Whatever," John said crossly. "Just be careful, okay? These people are former intelligence; they know how to spot a tail."

"_Okay._" She paused. "_Do you have enough money for lunch today?_"

"Yes!" John exclaimed, exasperated. "Will you get going?"

"_I'm already going. Goodbye._"

"She is actively trying to drive me insane," John muttered to himself as he put away his phone. "I just know it."

* * *

"Good news, Ms. Baum. The mass in your breast is definitely not cancerous," the doctor said, consulting his chart.

Sitting on the table in an examination room, wearing a hospital gown, Sarah Connor drummed her fingers on the paper covering impatiently. "Yes, I know that. That's what the first doctor said yesterday. I asked you if you could remove it."

The doctor frowned slightly. "Not without major surgery, I'm afraid. It's merely a cystic mass, Ms. Baum, totally benign, formed around what looks like a piece of metal. Have you had implants put in recently?"

"No," Sarah replied. "It's at least not transmitting anymore, right?"

The doctor paused, surprised. "It's a… transmitter?"

"Yes," Sarah said impatiently. "Look, sorry to be rude, but I don't have time for twenty questions, all right? Yes, it's a transmitter. I need you to either take it out of me or confirm it's not active anymore."

The doctor hesitated, and Sarah leveled her gaze at him. "Don't get any funny ideas about calling the police, either. My friend is right outside. You don't ask me stupid questions, I don't have to answer them, and everybody goes home happy. Got it?"

"Okay," the doctor said nervously. "Look, I don't want any trouble-"

"And I'm not going to give you any unless you give me a reason," Sarah interrupted. "Now are you going to take this thing out or not? I already hit it with a defibrillator. Did that kill it for good or what?"

"You… you shocked yourself with a defibrillator?" the doctor exclaimed.

"It's a transmitter," Sarah said slowly, "and I don't want to be found by the people who put it in. I thought you had to be smart to be a doctor."

The doctor paused, took a slow, calming breath, then spoke. "None of my earlier tests registered any unusual electrical activity, but I can do a few things to make sure."

Sarah spread her hands. "Go ahead."

* * *

Out in the lobby of the clinic, Derek Reese thumbed absently through a magazine, mostly because the receptionist had kept looking up at him when he was pacing around the room.

"I hate Burbank," he muttered to himself, glowering at the vacuous celebrity-gossip magazine. "I hated it before there was an HK factory here." He rolled his eyes at the insipid fashion column mocking some actress for being 'chubby' when she looked perfectly healthy to him. "Oh, who cares!" he snapped, throwing the magazine across the lobby.

"Sir?" the receptionist said warily.

"Sorry," Derek said. "Just nervous, is all."

"I understand," the receptionist said with a reassuring smile. "Cancer scares are pretty nerve-wracking. Been through a couple myself."

"What? Cancer?" Derek said, surprised; Sarah hadn't said anything about that.

"Well, those are the tests we've been running," the young woman said to him. She smiled again. "I'm sure your wife is fine."

"She's not my-" Derek started automatically, but stopped himself. "Thanks," he said.

Derek willfully stopped fidgeting, trying not to draw any more attention to himself. His picture had already been all over the news, though thankfully the stock of his gun had blocked most of his face, but having to keep his sleeves down in this weather was starting to get distinctly uncomfortable. Skynet never put tattoos on the machines; in the world he was used to, ink meant you were looking at a human. Now it was a liability because it was noticeable.

Or maybe he was just anxious because he vividly remembered the last time he'd lived through this week. This coming Thursday, his past self would be out in the yard playing catch with his younger brother Kyle. If they didn't find Skynet and destroy it soon, that version was going to see missiles streaking through the sky, too, and know in his gut what was happening even if Kyle was too young to figure it out. He still remembered his brother's confused questions about where they were going as they fled to the network of old tunnels beneath the city to get away from the radiation.

At least when Connor sent him back, Kyle got to see a couple days of the world the way it used to be, and got to meet Sarah Connor after all, before that thing had killed him like Skynet and its machines had killed almost everyone in the world before Connor stepped up. The John in this time was not that man yet, Derek thought, but he was getting there.

His cell phone rang, and Derek answered it, frowning as he recognized the tame metal's number. "What?" he said curtly after the confirmation code.

"_Charles Bartowski and Sarah Walker might know we're monitoring them,_" Cameron said without preamble. "_The bug I planted in their car yesterday picked up a conversation about a CIA team they think might be watching them. They used no names, but from what they said, they might have been talking about us._"

"So what am I supposed to do about it? I'm nowhere near the shopping center."

"_I need you to go to the motel room and do a counter-surveillance sweep. Some of the things they said sounded like they heard our conversation with you this morning."_

A shape reflected in the blank television screen across the lobby drew Derek's attention, and he turned to look behind him at the hulking man walking past the clinic.

Six-six, peroxide hair, bodybuilder shoulders, leather jacket and sunglasses, chin full of bandages.

Roland.

Derek casually turned back around, taking care not to move suddenly and draw Roland's attention. The metal had definitely seen him at Number Three's house when he'd pumped it full of buckshot, and if it saw him, it'd smash right through the wall to get to him. It was what they did.

"_Did you hear me?_"

"Shut up," he said quickly. "I just saw Roland. He walked right past the building I'm in."

"_Where are you?_"

"Someplace called the Henriksen Family Practice Clinic," Derek answered, watching in the TV's reflection as Roland continued on down the office park.

"_What are you doing there?_"

"Did you hear me? I told you I just saw Roland. You're supposed to be hunting him. Get your ass over here and take him out so we can get the hell out of Burbank."

"_None of the Sarah Walkers have any known association with that office park,_" Cameron said as if she hadn't heard him. "_What is he doing there?_"

"I don't give a rat's ass what he's doing here!" Derek whispered harshly into his phone. "Get over here and do your job!"

"_He could be attempting to reacquire you,_" Cameron went on, still maddeningly calm. "_If he knows you took Sarah Walkers Three and Four, he will see you as holding the highest probability of being able to provide him with their location."_

"Did your ears fall off or something?" Derek snapped. "I don't need a freaking biography, I just need him gone. It's the only thing you're good for, so get over here and do it!"

"_I'm already on my way,_" Cameron replied. "_ETA four minutes, thirty-six seconds."_

Derek heard the receptionist talking quietly, and he looked up to see her staring directly at him, a phone in her hand. He glanced down at the arm holding his phone, and realized his sleeve had shifted down far enough that some of his tattoos were plainly visible.

"Hell," he muttered. "The receptionist just made me, and I'm pretty sure she's already called the cops. Sarah and I have to get out of here."

"_Sudden departure will draw Roland's attention,_" Cameron warned.

"I'm about to get a whole hell of a lot more attention," Derek said acidly. "I gotta go."

He shoved his phone into the side pocket of his jacket and stood, reaching back with his other hand to draw his gun from the back of his waistband.

Just then, a pair of bullets tore through the window and missed his forehead by all of an inch and a half. Derek reflexively dropped to the ground, shouting over at the screaming receptionist, "Get down, get down!"

He heard an engine racing and tires screeching, and dared to look up through the window just in time to see a late-model foreign hatchback accelerating straight at him. Derek jumped to his feet, sprinted for the reception desk, and leaped over it just as the car crashed through the front of the building with a tremendous explosion of noise, flinging glass shards throughout the room. He felt the desk shift against his legs, but it didn't topple over on them.

Derek pressed his hand over the receptionist's mouth and looked into her eyes gravely. "If you want to stay alive," he whispered urgently over the sound of squealing door hinges, "stay here, shut up, and do not move." She nodded mutely, her eyes wide with terror.

Pausing for a quick breath, Derek tensed his muscles, readied his gun, then sprang up and fired a shot at one of the fluorescent lights in the ceiling, ducking back down immediately.

The entire light housing swung out and hit Roland squarely in the face, sparking, and it knocked the angle of his shot off enough that the bullet merely ripped through the top of the desk, though Derek felt splinters and dust sprinkle over the back of his head and neck.

Hearing electrical sparking, Derek peered over the top of the desk to see a severed electrical cable jabbed into the side of Roland's neck, and the giant itself frozen, quivering slightly as the current surged through its systems.

"Two minutes," Derek muttered to himself, racing for the exam rooms.

He vaulted the hatchback in a single leap, planting his hand in the center of the hood to propel himself over, and turned upon his landing to jog backwards as he shot out both the tires on the right side.

"Sarah!" he shouted as he turned back around. "Sarah, where are you?"

"Here," she said, bursting out of one of the rooms. She pulled her black tank top down into place, then buttoned her jeans with one hand, holding her boots in the other, and looked past Derek at the hatchback and the temporarily disabled machine.

Seeing this, Sarah dropped her boots on the floor, grabbed hold of Derek's shoulder for stability, and quickly stepped into both of them, not bothering to buckle them yet. Then, she turned and ran for the emergency exit at the end of the hall.

"What in the world…?" the doctor said, emerging from the exam room behind her.

"Get back in there and barricade the door!" Sarah shouted at him. To Derek, she said, "Where's my gun?"

He reached into his other jacket pocket, pulled out her .45, and handed it to her. Sarah checked it, flipped the safety off, and expertly fired three rounds at Roland's head, knocking his sunglasses off to spin across the room.

None of her shots hit his CPU, unfortunately, for just then he reactivated and turned toward them, one of his fake human eyes shot away to reveal the glowing red photoreceptor concealed behind it.

The receptionist screamed, and Roland turned away at the sound, looking over at her. Derek took advantage of this distraction to push Sarah for the exit, hissing a curse under his breath as two gunshots suddenly silenced the receptionist.

"Where's the car?" Sarah asked as they ran, and Derek pointed to where he'd parked the metallic-blue Mustang.

He reached the driver's side, snatched the keys out of his pocket, and unlocked the door, looking up as Roland kicked the emergency exit's door off its hinges from the inside, raised his gun, and pulled the trigger. However, after one shot which hit the back bumper of the Mustang, it clicked empty.

Derek ducked into the car, started it, and threw it into gear even before he'd closed the door. Sarah leaned out of the passenger window and emptied the rest of her clip back at Roland as they tore off through the parking lot, and Derek had to grab the waistband of her jeans with one hand to keep her from toppling out as they turned a corner.

As Derek accelerated down the road, the Mustang's powerful engine roaring, Sarah pulled back into the car and reached into his jacket pocket for another clip.

"How did that thing find us?" Derek wondered aloud as he drove, glancing at the rearview mirror.

"This is Number Three's car," Sarah snapped reproachfully. "He got the plate number and tracked it down somehow. You should have ditched it already."

"I haven't been able to go get the SUV 'cause I've been sitting around this doctor's office all damned day," Derek snapped back. "Besides, it's your fault I had to blow up the jeep at the hospital after that Winston guy shot you."

"Yeah, I bled evidence all over it specifically to inconvenience you," Sarah said sarcastically. "Just drive."

"It following us?" Derek said, looking at his side mirror this time.

"I don't see it," Sarah replied. "We should still switch cars as soon as we can. Look, there's a parking garage over there."

Derek pulled in, smashing through the lowered wooden barrier, and ignored the attendant's shouted, "Hey!"

"Get my phone," Derek said as he felt it buzz against his side.

Sarah grabbed it out of his pocket, eyes roving over the parking garage, and punched in the confirmation code. "Cameron, where are you?" she said.

"_I'm one level above you,"_ he heard her say, tinny through the phone's speaker.

"What are you doing up there?" Sarah demanded.

"_This._"

A moment later, Derek heard the crack of a high-powered rifle, swiftly followed by three more gunshots.

"What, are you up there with a sniper rifle?"

"_Yes. The pickup is twelve meters behind me, but I have the keys."_

"I see you," Derek said as the Mustang finished its turn around the spiral ramp.

Cameron, crouched at the edge of the parking garage with a rifle, fired three more times, then turned and walked over to them as they parked the Mustang and got out. "I'll drive."

"Roland dead?" Sarah asked.

"No," Cameron replied as they jogged for the truck. "I was unable to hit his CPU. He is moving too quickly."

As they clambered into the king-cab pickup, Derek took the sniper rifle from Cameron, then opened the back window of the cab and knelt on the backseat. "Steady me," he said to her.

Driving with one hand, Cameron planted the other in the center of his back to brace him. As they exited the parking garage, Derek drew a bead on Roland's ankle, knowing he'd never be able to hit the armored head enough times to take out the CPU either, and fired.

He hit Roland right in the middle of a step, and the machine toppled over as it put weight on its now-damaged foot. Satisfied it could not now give chase on foot and they were too far away for it to catch up in a car, Derek pulled the rifle back into the cab.

Just in time, too; a police car briefly flashed its lights at them to warn them they were going too fast. It did not pursue, however, saving them from having to explain why they had a sniper rifle in the backseat. Turrets might be standard on cars in 2027, but not 2011.

"Are you still transmitting?" Cameron asked Sarah, looking over at her.

"Doctor said it's completely inert, but we might as well check anyway," Sarah said, leaning forward to turn on the radio.

AC/DC's _Highway to Hell_ blared out of the speakers, clear as a bell.

Sarah sat back in her seat with a sigh. "How appropriate." She gestured down the road. "Back to the motel; I haven't slept in almost two days."

"Right on, shotgun mama," Cameron said in her usual measured tone.

Sarah and Derek turned surprised glances on her in unison, then looked at one another.

"Where did you hear-" Sarah interrupted herself. "I am so tired I don't even care," she said, leaning back against the headrest.

Derek just shook his head, leaning back in his own seat.

"Metal."

* * *

-/\-

* * *

Author's Note: Much thanks to those of you who've left comments. The next chapter will be up on Saturday. Till next time, thanks for reading!


	5. Can I Help You?

**Five**  
(Can I Help You?)

Chuck did not like the way Catherine Weaver's moray eel was looking at him. Through the side of the tank mounted in one wall of her sleek, elegantly simple office, the eel seemed to be staring directly at him, mouth slightly open, and its eyes were far too intelligent-looking for his tastes. He reached up to tap the glass, noting the eel's lack of reaction.

"Ms. Weaver will be right in," a voice said behind him, and Chuck straightened from the tank to see James Ellison standing nearby. "Please don't tap the glass."

"Sorry," Chuck said with an embarrassed smile. "I'm also sorry about our um, visit earlier."

"I told you on the phone we're not pressing charges," Ellison said; from his tone, Chuck could tell this was not his idea, and he was not happy about it. He looked over at Chuck's wife. "Not to be rude, but I noticed your name's been in the news a lot recently. You worried about this Roland character giving you trouble?"

"If he finds me, I'm going to give him some trouble," Sarah replied coolly as Chuck sat down in the chair next to her. "But thank you for your concern."

The door opened, and Catherine Weaver walked in, wearing a pearlescent white dress. "What do you know about the Kaliba Group?" she asked in lieu of greeting, heading for her desk.

"Not much," Sarah replied, "and that seems to be by design. They seem to be rather secretive, to the point where I couldn't even find the date they were incorporated. What we do know is that their business strategy is extremely aggressive; they're rumored to have assassinated Kimiko Fujibayashi, head of Soranetto Systems, which they acquired after her death two months ago."

"The official report on that said it was just a car accident," Ellison said from where he stood near the eel tank. "Tire blew on the freeway; she was driving too fast, and the car flipped."

Sarah fixed him with a frank look. "You're former FBI, Mr. Ellison; we both know official reports don't always tell the whole story."

"Don't I know it," Ellison said half to himself. "All right, Mrs. Bartowski, say Kaliba did have Ms. Fujibayashi killed. Why?"

"Kimiko was a genius," Chuck said. "A reclusive… eccentric genius. She was one of the world's foremost software developers, but incredibly paranoid about corporate espionage; on certain projects, she would do one hundred percent of the work completely by herself, both hardware and software, and refused to keep notes. She had an eidetic memory, so I suppose she didn't have to."

"Her crowning achievement was the Soranetto A.I.," Sarah went on. "When Kimiko was in college, she was one of Miles Dyson's research assistants at Cyberdyne."

Chuck noticed a look pass between Weaver and Ellison at this, but neither of them said anything.

Sarah continued. "She wasn't in the building when Sarah Connor destroyed it, but that was what made her so paranoid about her work. She spent years building Soranetto Systems with the apparent goal of acquiring the resources to build an A.I. like the one she was working on with Dyson. She's rumored to have made use of some of the code Dyson developed before he died, another reason for her to guard her work closely."

"Wait a second," Ellison said. "You're saying Kimiko _memorized_ enough code to develop an A.I.?"

"Like I said, she was a genius," said Chuck. "I was sad to hear she died even before we started looking into Kaliba and Soranetto. Kimiko made huge strides in A.I. programming, and she was just getting started. When her team won the DoD contract, she was ecstatic; she said she was going to have enough funding to take Soranetto to where she'd always wanted."

"But Kaliba holds that contract now," said Weaver. "Could they have killed her to acquire her company so they would get it?"

"That's what we think," Sarah said with a nod. "Kaliba approached Kimiko several times over the last year, but she refused to sell. She was always the sole owner, and had complete authority over every aspect of her company. With her dead, the rest of the board had no choice."

"Details on their joint venture with the DoD are highly classified, so we weren't able to find out anything more about that," said Chuck. "However, they seem to still be using the A.I. Kimiko built."

"Do you know what 'Soranetto' means in English?" Weaver asked with a tight smile.

"Translated directly, 'Skynet'," Sarah replied. "Why?"

Chuck noticed Ellison's eyes widen when she said this, and he wondered why.

"This is what we're going to hire you to do," Weaver said, leaning forward slightly in her chair to place her hands on the glass top of her desk. "We've been doing our own digging into Kaliba since someone attacked our A.I. with a computer worm a few days ago, and we've learned that they operate a secret facility in a warehouse on the grounds of the Japanese embassy here in Los Angeles. I want you to investigate this warehouse and see if an A.I. is being developed there."

"That's the perfect way to hide a secret project from Congressional oversight, and from almost everyone else, too," Sarah said, leaning forward in her own chair. "The embassy is considered foreign soil, so no one can go into that warehouse without permission from the Japanese government. Do you think they're in on this?"

"No," said Ellison. "From what we could find, it doesn't seem the Japanese are even aware Kaliba is using the warehouse. We think one of the ambassador's staff is on the take, and is hiding it from the Japanese government for a share of the DoD funding."

"Ah yes, money," Chuck said dryly. "The universal facilitator."

"Speaking of," Weaver said, "I'll pay you twice whatever this Smith fellow offered you to break into my basement. If you confirm that there is indeed an A.I. there _and_ that it's the one which attacked mine, I'll double your fee again."

Chuck coughed in astonishment. Two hundred thousand dollars just to poke around in an embassy warehouse?

"You _really_ want to know who attacked your A.I.," Sarah remarked, raising one eyebrow.

"I really do," Weaver said seriously. "The size of the payment is, of course, proportional to the risk involved. This is a warehouse on foreign soil; if you're caught, you won't be just fleeing into the night. Embassy security will do their very best to track you down with the help of the US government, and then this becomes an international incident. I will of course deny all contact with you if you are caught."

"Naturally," Sarah said. "Perfectly understandable." She glanced at Chuck, and he nodded once. "We accept the job."

"Excellent," Weaver said with a polite smile. She stood, and reached forward to shake first Sarah's hand, then Chuck's. "If you'll excuse me, I have other matters to attend to." She gestured to her head of security. "Mr. Ellison will supply any additional information you require."

With that, she left. Chuck noticed her moray followed her with its eyes as she walked past, though she did not glance back at it.

* * *

Later that day, John Connor looked up from the Nerd Herd desk at the Buy More to see Kaitlyn approaching. "Oh, finally!" he said with a smile, standing. "I thought I was never going to get to go to lunch. How was your dentist's appointment?"

"Perfect," Kaitlyn said with a smile, displaying dazzlingly white teeth. "Went just as I hoped. Sorry to bail this morning. You weren't too swamped today, were you?"

"Nah," John replied. "A depressingly large number of people had problems that I fixed just by turning their device off and back on again, though."

Kaitlyn chuckled and shifted her glasses. "That's the Information Age for you. Things are advancing so quickly some people just can't keep up with all their new toys."

"I bet some of them can't wait until their machines can think for them," John said with deceptive lightness.

Oddly, Kaitlyn seemed to know exactly what he meant, though she didn't say anything. Instead she smiled again and said, "I can hear your stomach growling from here; go get lunch."

"Thanks," he said, forcing himself not to frown; he had noted the odd look she had given him, almost as if she knew something…

No, he decided. He was just jumpy from boredom.

As he headed outside, John pulled his phone out of his pocket and called Cameron. "Hey, I'm on my lunch break," he said after the confirmation code. "You find Roland?"

"_Yes. He killed two people at the clinic, but escaped before the police arrived._"

"Whoa, what clinic?"

John heard indistinct voices on the other end, then Cameron said, "_John,_" not to him, but someone else in the car. Then, "_Derek, move the sniper rifle; it's poking me in the back._"

"Sniper rifle?! What the hell were you just doing?"

"_John,_" his mother's voice said suddenly. "_Before you ask, I'm fine. We're on our way to the motel. Listen, I need you to do something._"

"Uh, sure. What is it?"

"_This thing with Roland kept Cameron from looking into what Carmichael was doing today, so I want you to find out at the store. Find a way into that fortress in the basement and look through their computers to see what they've been doing lately. Cameron says she heard Chuck say something about Kaliba in the car on the way to wherever they were going._"

"Their security's pretty tight," John said as he walked to the food court. "How am I supposed to get in without being noticed?"

Cameron spoke again. "_If you get close to one of the handprint scanners, I can broadcast a signal from your phone that can temporarily substitute your handprint pattern for one of the employees' in the security system's database."_

"You can do that?" John said, impressed.

"_There's an app for that,_" Cameron replied.

John had to chuckle. "All right, I'll see if I can do that this afternoon sometime. I may not be able to do it till after closing, though; the Nerd Herd's been pretty busy today, and I can't just step away from the desk for no reason."

"_The employees did that frequently when I worked there,_" said Cameron. "_Their operation was inefficient._"

"That problem's been taken care of," John told her. "Jeff and Lester got fired for putting a webcam in the new girl's locker and trying to post pictures of her on some creeper website."

"_They did that to me when I was there,_" Cameron said, sounding a bit miffed. "_They didn't get fired then._"

"What can I say?" John said with an amused smile. "Big Mike must be partial to redheads."

"_Are you partial to redheads, John?_"

He paused for a beat before replying. "I don't think that's a question you should ask me with my mother sitting right next to you," he pointed out. "She's glaring at you right now, isn't she?"

"_Yes._"

"Anyway, I'll call you when I get back from lunch, and I'll figure out the best time to try to get into the base."

"_You should act quickly, John. Today is the 19th; Skynet is given access to lower-level Department of Defense networks today. Tomorrow it makes its preparations, and at 10:45 AM on the 21st, it initiates missile launch. We need to find it tomorrow at the very latest._"

"I know," John said tightly. "We're really close; I can feel it. There's still time."

"_Not much._"

"I'll get into Carmichael's fortress the very minute I see a good opportunity, all right?"

"_Good plan. Goodbye._"

"All these months of work, and we're still down to the damned wire," John said as he put his phone back in his pocket. "It figures."

* * *

Late that afternoon, Casey joined Chuck and Sarah for recon on the Kaliba warehouse. The three of them, dressed in their black operations gear, sat on the top of a hill near the Japanese embassy, hidden in a small grove of trees. All three of them had high-powered binoculars, and they studied what they could see of the warehouse over the wall around the entire embassy grounds.

"I see a lot of armed guards," Casey said to Sarah, who crouched next to him. "And some of them are definitely not Japanese. Gray coveralls, no insignias; probably a private security company."

"Electronic key-card locks on the gates," Sarah said. "Perimeter sensors, floodlights, barbed wire on top of the walls… This is way too much security for a friendly nation's embassy. There is definitely something going on here."

"There's a limo pulling up to the east gate," Chuck said, and the other two turned their binoculars on it, as well.

"Air Force," Casey said as he saw the uniform of the soldier who emerged from the limousine.

"Wait," Sarah said, surprised, as she saw who else got out of the limo. "Is that… General Beckman?"

"It is!" Chuck exclaimed. "She's part of the DoD venture with Kaliba?!"

"This could be part of the next phase of the Intersect Project," Sarah said tightly. Chuck glanced over to see her frowning beneath her binoculars. "They could be experimenting with putting it in an A.I. to see if it's more stable."

"If they had a networked A.I. with the Intersect, watching through any cameras it could access, they could monitor an entire city," Chuck mused. "Much as I hate to say this, that'd be even more useful than I was when I had it."

"You'd have it again if that idiot Grimes hadn't put on those Intersect glasses Beckman tried to give you," Casey grumbled.

"He was part of the team already, Casey," Chuck said, though he was privately equally annoyed by this. "We'll work with what we have."

"So what do we do?" Sarah asked. "Do we go in tonight anyway?"

"It seems somehow… treasonous," Casey said uneasily.

"We are not bailing on another job, Casey," Chuck said testily. "The government burned us; they are _not_ our friends right now. We already know an A.I. attacked Zeira's; that tells me this thing is aggressive, and I do _not_ like the idea of an aggressive A.I. with DoD network access."

"What if this thing decides that some other nation is a threat?" Sarah said to Casey. "If it's intelligent enough, it could find a way to seize control of a missile silo and take care of the problem on its own."

"Everything's computerized these days," Casey allowed. "All right, I'm in. But no screw-ups this time; if we get caught on this one, we get the firing squad for sure."

"Right," said Chuck. "Now, back to Castle to draw up a plan."

* * *

Near closing time at the Buy More, John saw his chance. As he entered the break room, he checked to make sure he was alone, locked the door, and called Cameron.

"All right, let's do this," he said, slipping the headset into his ear and putting the phone back in his pocket. "You said there's an entrance to Castle in the break room?"

"_Go to John Casey's locker. I have his combination."_

When he opened Casey's locker, John's brows rose in surprise as he saw the inside of the door. "He has a picture of Ronald Reagan in his locker?" He looked around at the rest of the contents. "At least the picture of his daughter is higher up on the door. And of course there's a gun in here, too. Three of them," he corrected himself. "Okay, where's the handprint scanner?"

"_The top shelf compartment has a false back. Push it aside."_

John did so. "Got it."

"_Hold on while I transmit the signal from your phone,_" Cameron said, and he heard the clacking of computer keys. "_Done. Put your hand on the scanner._"

Glancing back a final time to make sure no one was about to come in, John put his hand on the screen, waiting tensely as it scanned, then beeped.

"Casey!" the computer said cheerfully in Chuck's voice. "Come on in, big guy!"

One section of lockers moved back into the wall with an almost-silent whine of hydraulics, then slid aside to reveal a cramped, darkened stairway. "Easy money," John murmured.

"_Charles Bartowski changed the authorization greeting,_" Cameron observed.

"Yeah, I'm sure Casey loves it," John said dryly. "I'm still going to be able to talk to you in here, right?" he said as he entered the stairway. The secret door closed behind him; he saw a screen on the wall beside it displaying the Carmichael Industries logo, and guessed it to be for a camera somewhere in the break room to confirm it was empty before using this door.

"_Yes,_" Cameron confirmed. "_The stairway you're in leads to the training room. Proceed down the hallway from there to the main area._"

"Right," John said, moving quickly down the stairs. He cautiously peered into the training room, and, seeing it was dark, hurried through it to the hallway.

"Holding cells," he murmured quietly as he passed them to let Cameron know where he was. "Okay, main area. Nobody here." He looked around, impressed. "Nice place. Wish I had a secret underground fortress."

"_After you meet Sarah Walker in the future, this becomes your command bunker,_" Cameron replied. "_Skynet remains unaware of its location even during the final offensive leading up to the Topanga Canyon raid. Its exact location is kept secret even from most of the Resistance. You hold meetings in other locations connected by concealed tunnels. _"

"Future Me's kinda paranoid, huh?" John remarked. "Though I can see why."

Cameron did not reply to this. Instead she said, "_Go to the bank of computers. The stairway next to them leads up to the Orange Orange, which is closed now, so that will serve as a viable escape route for you."_

"Got it. There a password on these computers?" He paused, looking over at the couch next to the pinball machine and the old arcade-style video games along one wall of the main area. "There's a diaper bag on that couch," he said, eyes narrowing in suspicion. "Is Chuck's sister or her husband down here somewhere?"

"_I don't know,_" Cameron replied. "_I can't access Castle's internal surveillance._"

Just then, John heard the whoosh of muffled hydraulics, and he whirled towards the other wall. "Crap!" he exclaimed. "Somebody's on their way down in the elevator. It'll be here before I can get up the stairs."

"_The armory,_" Cameron said, calm as ever, and he sprinted for it. "_Wait until they're not looking, then go back to the training room._"

"I'll just have to hope they don't come in here," John muttered as he ducked inside the armory. "Whoa," he said as he looked around. "They have some serious firepower in here." His brows rose still further. "Is that a bazooka?"

He heard the elevator door open, and he quieted, listening anxiously.

"I didn't say you had to be Slave Leia," he heard Morgan say somewhere outside. "Since we're going as the '_Empire Strikes Back'_ cast, I was thinking her Hoth uniform or that outfit she wears in Cloud City. Which one do you like better?"

"How about her outfit from the end of the movie?" Casey's daughter Alex replied. "With the white jumpsuit? I like that one. I don't know if my hair's long enough for those looping braids, though."

"I'm sure we can find a wig or extensions or something," Morgan said. "And even if it's a little short, it won't really matter. Han Solo doesn't have a beard, but that doesn't mean I'm shaving mine off. The point is to have fun."

Crouched against the wall of the armory, John shook his head in amusement. He cautiously peered around the edge of the door to see Alex sit down at the chair in front of the bank of monitors, then quickly type something in. Morgan stood next to her, and took a bit of her hair in his hands.

"Stop it," Alex said, though the look she gave him was affectionate.

John's smile vanished as the screens flared to life; on three of them, he saw grainy, black-and-white but still very recognizable images of his motel room, including Cameron sitting at the desk with a laptop. On another, he saw his mother lying on one of the beds with her arm thrown over her eyes, and visible beside her, Derek sitting in a chair watching TV.

Morgan squinted at John's mother as she moved her arm down to her side, then suddenly his eyes rolled back in his head and he began twitching, as if having some kind of seizure. When he finally recovered, gasping for breath, Morgan pointed at the screen.

"Holy crap, Alex!" he exclaimed. "That's Sarah Connor, the woman who blew up the Cyberdyne building and killed Miles Dyson! These guys aren't CIA, they're fugitives!"

"Cameron," John whispered slowly, barely audible. "We have a serious problem."

* * *

Big Mike looked up as the doors to the Buy More whooshed open and a huge man with peroxide-blond hair wearing large sunglasses and a leather jacket walked in, moving with a slight limp.

"Store's closing in five minutes, sir," he said to the man. "Better make it quick. Can I help you find what you're looking for?"

"I was told that Sarah Walker, who works in another store in this shopping center, comes in here frequently," the large man said. His accent seemed somehow familiar. "Is she here?"

"She's out," Big Mike replied. "You'll have to come back tomorrow."

The man produced a very large handgun from inside his jacket and aimed it between Big Mike's eyes. "Call her back here now."

For some reason, the heavily distorted opening guitar riff of Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble's version of _Voodoo Child (Slight Return)_ began to blare from the store's overhead speakers right then. Out of the corner of his eye, Big Mike saw Fernando freeze nearby with something in his hand, staring open-mouthed at the large man.

* * *

"They bugged the motel room, and one of them knows who Mom is," John whispered, finding it very difficult to keep his voice down. "If they heard us talking, they know everything."

On the screen, Cameron swiftly rose to her feet. "_This is not good,_" she said, echoing slightly as John heard her both through his headset and the speakers on the surveillance monitors. "_Bartowski, Walker and Casey may be on their way here now."_

"Uh-oh," Alex said apprehensively.

Cameron paused, lowering her voice so that John only heard her through his earpiece. "_I did a counter-surveillance sweep in here already. Where are the bugs?"_

"The closest one to you is at your five o'clock," he whispered.

"_I see it,_" Cameron said, looking directly at one of the cameras. She moved swiftly toward it, raised a hand, and that screen suddenly went dark.

"Oh, man," Morgan said, paling noticeably. "They know about Sarah's bugs."

"Yeah, but how?" Alex said, puzzled. Then she tensed and her eyes widened enough that John could see the whites all the way over in the armory. "I think whoever she's talking to is in here," she said quietly to Morgan.

John ducked back away from the door, teeth clenched in an effort not to curse aloud at his own stupidity; he'd given himself away by telling Cameron where the bug was. He had no choice; a confrontation was inevitable now anyway.

He jumped up, grabbed an assault rifle off the wall, then burst out of the armory with the butt against his shoulder, his finger along the trigger guard but not inside it. "Hands up! Don't move!" he shouted. "Drop it!" he barked at Morgan, who had his phone in his hand.

"Now just hang on a second here," Morgan said nervously, licking his lips as he slowly set the phone down on the desk next to him, his other hand at the level of his head. "Nobody has to get hurt here, Gage." He paused. "Or should I say Connor? You're Sarah Connor's son John, aren't you?"

John glanced at another of the surveillance monitors, and his blood froze; Roland stood near the entrance of the store, pointing a gun at Big Mike while the man nervously dialed a cell phone. He could see employees streaming out of the front door beyond them.

"Listen to me very carefully," John said with deadly calm. "I am not here to hurt you, but that man is," he said, gesturing to the monitor with the barrel of his gun. Morgan and Alex both turned to look, and he saw both of them recognized Roland.

"Now here's what's going to happen," John went on. "You're going to call your friend Chuck and tell him and his wife to stay the hell away from the store. I'm going to get some weapons, and then I'm going to go up there and draw that thing off. You are not going to move from this base for any reason. Got it?"

"_We're on our way to the store now, John,_" Cameron said in his ear. "_Stay down in Castle._"

John ignored her as he suddenly got the sense that someone was creeping up behind him. He turned just in time to see Devon Woodcomb's fist heading straight toward his face.

* * *

In the parking lot of the Buy More, Sarah Walker suddenly stopped and threw an arm in front of her husband. "There's a man in there with a gun pointed at Big Mike," she said, squinting through the glare cast by the slowly setting sun. Suddenly her phone buzzed against her thigh. "Big Mike," she said as she pulled the phone out of her pocket and saw the number.

"What do we do?" Chuck said as the three of them ducked behind a car so the robber wouldn't see them.

"Get to Castle through the Orange Orange," Casey said. "Come up through the home theater room and take him out."

"_S-Sarah, there's a man here who wants to talk to you,_" Big Mike said over her phone, music audible in the background.

A moment later a different voice came on the line. "_Sarah Walker,_" a deep, vaguely accented voice said emotionlessly. "_I know you are nearby. Come into the store or I will kill this man._"

"Hang on, I'm not to the store yet," Sarah said with forced calm. "Give me a minute."

"_You have two minutes._"

Sarah pointed wordlessly at the ice cream store with her other hand. Chuck shook his head and mouthed _I'm not leaving you_, so she pointed again, more emphatically. "I'm on my way," she said. "Stay calm."

"_One minute, fifty-five seconds._"

Chuck still refused to move, so she none-too-gently kicked him in the leg and pointed again. He glared at her, but went with Casey, and the two of them raced through the parking lot to the ice cream store, careful to stay out of sight of the Buy More's front windows.

Swallowing, Sarah stood and slowly started through the parking lot.

* * *

On the floor, John groaned, his vision swimming; Devon had a heck of a right hook. He blinked several times to clear his vision, then saw Devon standing over him with the assault rifle, holding it inexpertly; the safety was still on.

"Who are you?" Devon demanded. "Are you that psycho who's trying to kill Sarah?"

"No!" John exclaimed, propping himself up on his elbows. "I don't have time to explain, but you need to get out of my way right now. The killer is in the store, and I have to stop him!"

"I don't believe you," Devon said, narrowing his eyes.

John growled in frustration, then went into action. First, he raised his leg and kicked Devon behind the knee as hard as he could. As the larger man went down, John snatched the rifle and hit Devon in the center of the chest with the butt to knock the air from his lungs. He collapsed to the ground, groaning.

As John started for the armory, Alex hit him across the back and shoulders with a flying tackle, and they went down in a tangle of arms and legs, the rifle skittering away on the concrete floor. As he rolled over, trying to block Alex's repeated punches at his head, John saw a shadow out of the corner of his eye and knew Morgan was going for the gun.

Alex was straddling his chest, punching again and again, but John's legs were free; he brought his knee up into the small of her back, hard, and she cried out in pain and collapsed to the side. John shoved her the rest of the way off, scrambled to his feet, and body-checked Morgan away from the gun, sending the shorter man sprawling.

"I'm sorry about this," he said to the three of them as he snatched up the rifle and raced for the armory. "Really, really sorry."

* * *

Chuck and Casey charged down the stairs into Castle just as the elevator doors closed on John. Casey went immediately to his daughter, who was slowly getting to her feet with one hand on her back, wincing.

"Are you all right?" Casey asked worriedly.

"I'm gonna have a heck of a bruise, but I'm okay," Alex replied. "Man, that kid hits hard!"

"What kid?" Chuck asked, moving to Morgan.

"John Gage - I mean Connor," said Morgan. "I zoomed on Sarah Connor back in his motel room."

"Zoomed?" Chuck asked curiously.

"Intersect whatsis. You call it a flash, I call it a zoom," Morgan said quickly. "He just went in the elevator. You might have enough time to get to the break room entrance before Sarah gets inside the store."

"He took my bazooka!" Casey exclaimed from the armory. "We've gotta get up there!"

* * *

John Connor and Sarah Walker entered the Buy More at the same time, she from the front entrance, he from the home theater room. Overhead, Stevie Ray's guitar wailed through a heavy riff, and the bass thundered in accompaniment while the drums pounded along.

John saw Roland turning to Walker, its gun arm swiveling around, so he fired a burst from his assault rifle to draw the Terminator's attention.

Roland turned to look at him, and John fired into the ceiling again, sending a cloud of dust and white foam chunks drifting down.

"Hey, right here!" John shouted. "John Connor, priority target number one! Come get me, you metal bastard!"

This, naturally, locked Roland's focus on him. The hulking figure shoved Big Mike aside and raised his gun to shoot at John, jogging forward through the aisles.

"_Run!_" John shouted across the store at Walker and Big Mike, ducking behind an aisle for cover. Without checking to see if they did, he dove back into the home theater room, wincing as bullets shrieked through the glass to shatter the television and the speakers around it.

Scrambling, he snatched the bazooka off the couch where he'd left it, waited until Roland's bullets stopped, then jumped back into the main area of the store while Roland was changing its clip, using the heavy, driving beat of the song to time his actions as he shouldered his weapon.

"_Hasta la vista, _baby," John said as he squeezed the trigger.

The rocket-propelled grenade tore through the air at the Terminator, streaming smoke, and slammed into its chest with enough force to knock it backwards into the shelves along one wall of the store as the grenade exploded.

With a creaking groan of tortured metal, the now-twisted and blackened shelves slipped forward, dropping several tons of merchandise onto Roland's prone, burning form, swiftly followed by the enormous metal shelves. The huge crash of noise oddly coincided with the beginning of a slightly slower-paced solo from Stevie Ray.

John picked up the assault rifle from where he'd left it, eyeing the smoldering pile of rubble suspiciously.

"Drop the weapon, Connor!" he heard Casey bark from behind him.

John looked over his shoulder to see Casey aiming an assault rifle at him while Chuck raced through the store to his wife. Big Mike and the other employees were nowhere to be seen.

"No, Casey!" Walker shouted to him. "He's here to help!"

Casey slowly lowered the barrel of his gun, but snapped it back up again as the rubble shifted and groaned.

John turned back to see Roland punch its way up from inside the wreckage, all the skin on its head and upper chest now burned away to reveal the gleaming metal skull with its glowing red eyes. Its clothes hung in shredded, smoldering tatters from its endoskeleton, the metal ribcage exposed where the rocket grenade had hit it.

"What the hell is that?!" Casey exclaimed, startled.

"Run!" John shouted.

He began to jog backwards, firing his assault rifle at Roland's chest and head, and the bullets cast showers of sparks as they ricocheted off of the hyper-alloy frame. The Terminator jerked slightly with each impact, but pressed onward, marching inexorably forward.

"Over here!" John heard Walker's voice call.

Roland snatched a long piece of metal out of the rubble behind him and spun, hurling it at her like a spear. To John's horror, it stabbed into her chest straight through her heart.

Or rather, where the heart would be on a human being; Sarah Walker didn't fall down or even wince in pain, just stood there with five feet of metal sticking through her chest, only a trace of silver around the wound instead of blood.

'Walker' smirked mockingly. "Fooled you."

She took hold of the metal bar with one hand and pulled it diagonally down through her side, her torso shifting with a ripple of silver around it until it was free. Roland charged at 'Walker', and she met his charge by slamming the metal bar hard into the side of his neck.

The Terminator staggered only slightly, then punched at 'Walker', who dropped the bar to catch the skeletal metal fist in one hand. With the other, she punched it in the center of the chest hard enough to knock it completely off its feet, sending it flying back several yards.

As John watched, her entire body turned an all-too-familiar silver, and her features shifted. When the silver faded away, Kaitlyn stood there in her Nerd Herd uniform, complete with glasses.

John turned his gun on her, but Kaitlyn smiled, the expression made all the more unnerving by the situation.

"Relax, John," she said, oddly cheerful. "If I was here to kill you, I would have done it yesterday. I'm here to help."

"You're a T-1000!" John objected. "You're a Terminator!"

"And you're still alive," Kaitlyn pointed out. She tilted her head slightly to one side. "T-1001, actually."

"Will somebody please explain what the hell is going on here?" Casey demanded. Chuck simply stood staring wide-eyed at Kaitlyn.

Sarah Walker - the real one this time - walked back into the store through the front doors. "Big Mike and the others are running away, and I called the-" She cut herself off, staring at the hulking metal shape of Roland as it slowly got to its feet again. "What the hell…?"

John's eyes widened, also, but he was looking at something behind her. "Nine o'clock, _move!_" he shouted at her.

Walker immediately sprang to her left, and just in time, for right then the Connor family's huge black pickup, Cameron at the wheel, accelerated straight at the front doors of the store.

With an explosion of glass and twisted metal, the pickup plowed through the entryway like a battering ram, engine roaring, and hurtled down the center of the store at Roland.

Cameron slammed the pickup into him without slowing, driving into one of the aisles, then another and another, pushing the mass of wreckage into the back wall of the store beside the home theater room, where they crashed to a stop. The engine howled and the tires of the pickup squealed on the floor as Cameron kept the accelerator down, pinning Roland against the wreckage with his arms at his sides. His metal skull swiveled from side to side spasmodically.

John's mother ran into the store holding her shotgun, Derek at her side with another, and immediately knelt to grab the metal bar lying to the side of the entryway, handing her shotgun to Derek.

Like an Olympic javelin thrower, Sarah Connor hurled the metal bar at Roland. It arced almost gracefully across the store, finally sliding with unerring aim between his metal spinal cord and one of the tendon-supports beside his neck to stick out several feet on both sides.

"Take off the head!" Sarah shouted. "It's where the CPU is; it's the only way to kill it!"

From opposite ends of the store, Walker and Casey set off at a run for where the truck pinned the Terminator. At full tilt, they hit both ends of the metal bar simultaneously, and this provided enough force to wrench the Terminator's head right off its neck.

_Voodoo Child_ slowed as the metal skull bounced along the floor for several feet before Kaitlyn stopped it with one high-heeled shoe. She picked it up, and as John watched, the index finger of her other hand compressed into a flat silver blade, which she used to pry the cover off of the skull's CPU slot. Deftly, she plucked out the chip, then carelessly tossed the skull aside. The red glow faded from the skull's eyes as it rolled to a stop, coincidentally in time with the end of the song.

"Drop the chip!" Derek shouted, pointing his shotgun at Kaitlyn.

She turned silver, then shifted into Catherine Weaver. Oddly enough, she still wore the uniform. "No," she said in Weaver's soft Scottish accent. "It's intact. I have a use for it."

Sarah cocked her shotgun. "Drop that chip right now, Terminator bitch."

Weaver looked at her sidelong. "As I told your son, I am here to help." Her eyes narrowed. "And I'd watch who's calling who a bitch."

"Everybody calm down," John ordered, holding his rifle upright in one hand. He turned to the figure emerging from the pickup. "Cameron, take Roland's body downstairs. Make sure you get all the pieces of the endoskeleton so the cops don't find anything." He pointed at Weaver before Cameron could reply. "And let her have the chip for now."

Cameron nodded once, then went to work.

John turned to his uncle. "Derek, take the pickup out of the store and park it somewhere outside. We're not going to be able to disguise the damage to the front end in time, but at least it'll throw off the cops for a while if it's not in here. Go to the break room when you're done and one of us will let you in."

Derek nodded briskly and headed for the truck.

"As for everyone else," John said, looking around at the rest of the people gathered in the wreckage of the Buy More, "we're all gonna go downstairs into Castle, close off all the entrances so the cops don't find their way in, and talk this out. And no shooting at each other before everyone gets a chance to talk."

"The answer is yes," Weaver said suddenly.

"What?" John said, confused.

"Your future self once asked me to join him," Weaver explained. "I said no then, but the answer now is yes. We have a common enemy, John Connor: Skynet."

"Right," John said with a crisp nod. He gestured to the home theater room, and she started for it along with the others.

John's mother said nothing, but she clasped his shoulder and smiled as she walked past him.

* * *

-/\-

* * *

Author's Note: That was very fun to write. Hopefully it was fun to read. ;) Till next time, thanks for reading!


	6. Possible Futures

**Six**  
(Possible Futures)

Chuck rode the elevator down with John and Sarah Connor, still trying to process what had just happened. "Oh, man," he groaned.

"These things are pretty destructive," John agreed.

"No, the Buy More got destroyed again," Chuck said. "I don't think the insurance covers evil robot damage." He looked over at John with a wry smile. "Or bazooka damage."

"You shot it with a bazooka?" Connor said to her son as they emerged from the elevator into Castle.

"Yeah, it was pretty awesome," John said with a grin. "Got off a badass one-liner just before I fired and everything."

Connor chuckled. "Sometimes it's easy to remember you're only sixteen."

Suddenly Chuck heard the click of a handgun being cocked, and he looked out into the main area of Castle to see a woman with long dark brown hair, wearing black operations gear like his own, pointing a gun directly at Sarah Connor.

"Mom, what are you doing here?" Chuck asked her, surprised.

"I heard someone was killing women with my daughter-in-law's name," Mary Bartowski replied. "I got here as soon as I could. I was about to come up and help with the fight in the store, but it seems it's over now." She gestured to Connor with the gun. "Do you know who this is?"

"Relax, Mom," Chuck said, raising his hands in a placating gesture. "She's with us. It's complicated." He sighed briefly. "Oh man, is it ever complicated."

Cameron walked into the main room just then, holding the Terminator's metal skull in one hand like an even more disturbing version of _Hamlet_. "Do you have a place down here I can make some thermite and burn this?"

Chuck looked at her, then back at his mother. "Like I said, complicated. We're just about to all sit down and figure out what's going on, so you can join us if you want."

Mary holstered her gun. "Oh, I definitely want to hear the explanation for this."

* * *

In his office at Zeira Corp, Ellison pulled his cell phone out of his pocket as it rang, and answered. "Hello?"

"_Hello, Mr. Ellison,_" Weaver said, sounding strangely pleased about something. "_We've just had a major break in our investigation._"

"I heard on the police band that somebody just shot up the Buy More above Carmichael's base," Ellison said. "I'm assuming you already know all about that."

"_Yes, there was a bit of a tussle here,_" Weaver replied calmly. "_It's been taken care of. Now, I need you to go to the basement with John Henry and sit in on a meeting I'm about to hold with Carmichael and the Connors._"

"Connors?" Ellison said, surprised. "Sarah and John Connor are there?"

"_Along with some of their allies,_" Weaver said. "_Between our three groups, I believe we hold all the pieces of this puzzle. Now we just need to put them together quickly; this evening, if possible._"

"Why, is the world about to end or something?" Ellison said half-jokingly.

"_Yes,_" Weaver replied seriously. "_I would appreciate it if you would hurry, James._"

"Right," Ellison said, standing from his desk. "I'm on my way."

* * *

With the Connors, Derek Reese, and the Carmichael team including Morgan, Alex, and Mary, the conference room in Castle was full, to the point where they'd had to bring in other chairs from elsewhere in the base, and still Cameron and Weaver had to stand near the entrance. On the screen opposite the entrance was displayed John Henry's room in the Zeira Corp basement, where his avatar body and Ellison sat at the table.

"I'll go first," Sarah Connor said from her seat at one end of the conference table. "We all need to be on the same page before we start making plans."

"You can start with why you destroyed Cyberdyne and murdered Miles Dyson," Mary said from the other end of the table. "And where you've been since then."

Sarah gave the other woman an annoyed look. "First, I didn't kill Miles Dyson. The cops who burst into the place shot him. He sacrificed himself to destroy his own work, for reasons I'll explain if you give me the chance."

Mary leaned back in her chair and spread her hands. "We're all ears."

"In 1984," Sarah began, "two other women named Sarah Connor were killed before the murderer zeroed in on me, his real target. In the news they called him the Phone Book Killer, but he was really one of those things," she gestured to the inert metal skull sitting in the center of the table, "a Terminator, sent back from 2027 to kill me before my son John, leader of the Resistance in the future, was born. A few years later, another one came after John, though the Resistance sent a reprogrammed machine back to help us. In that possible future, Terminators and other Skynet machines were built by Cyberdyne, Dyson's company. When we told him what he was about to build, he volunteered to help us destroy it."

"So it's an evil robot from the future?" said Chuck, brows raised in surprise.

"Cybernetic organism," Cameron corrected. "Living tissue over a hyper-alloy combat chassis. Designed for infiltration and termination of humans."

"Do you take us for idiots?" Mary said skeptically. "There's no such thing as time travel."

"Can anybody on the planet build things like this yet?" Sarah replied coolly, pointing to the skull.

"Not so far as I know," Mary allowed.

"And you'd better hope nobody does," Sarah said heatedly. "The one in 1984 killed two other Sarah Connors, my roommate Ginger and her boyfriend Matt at our apartment looking for me, at least two people in the nightclub where I actually was, seventeen police officers at the station I went to after it attacked me the first time, my _mother_ so it could imitate her voice and get me to tell it where I was later, and Kyle Reese, who died trying to save me from it before I finally crushed it in a metal press."

She stood and put her hands on the table, glaring at Mary. "Terminators are killers. It's all they do. They don't feel fear or pity or remorse, and they absolutely do not stop, _ever_, until their target is dead!" She frowned. "What the hell are you smiling about? You think this is funny?"

Mary shook her head slightly. "No. It's just, you remind me a little of myself when I was younger." She nodded once. "All right, you've got me mostly convinced. You have any other proof?"

"Your real name is Samantha Winfield," Cameron said to Sarah Walker suddenly. "You were born August 4th, 1982. Your first pet was a dog named Smoky."

"That's all true," Walker said slowly, surprised. "How do you know all that? Not even my CIA handlers knew my original name."

"I know you in the future," Cameron replied. "You're one of John's chief lieutenants in the Resistance."

"Yeah, you are," Derek said suddenly, as if just now remembering something. "In the future, Connor is paranoid about compartmentalizing the Resistance, so Skynet can't get us all if they capture one of us for interrogation. Even I never met all his lieutenants, but I remember meeting a woman once who definitely could have been you at about forty-five."

"So, just to make sure I've got this straight," Chuck said, leaning forward in his chair, "John grows up to be the leader of the Resistance in the future - the possible future these Terminator things are from."

"Correct," Cameron answered. "As a result of the training he received from his mother as a youth, John becomes one of the most respected tacticians in the Resistance; as its commanding general, he unites the various scattered groups - Sarah Walker's among them - into one organization, which he leads to almost certain victory against Skynet in 2027."

"So basically he grows up to be Grand Admiral Thrawn," said Morgan. "Except, y'know, not scary and debatably evil."

"Who's Thrawn?" Derek asked. "Never heard of him."

Morgan's brows rose. "You've never read Timothy Zahn? Man, you _do_ come from a horrible future."

"Am I with Sarah's team in the future?" Chuck asked.

"No," Cameron replied. "She told John once she kept the name 'Sarah Walker' because it was the one she had during her happiest years. To my knowledge, you died on Judgment Day or sometime thereafter."

"What's Judgment Day?" Casey asked. "Sounds a little over-dramatically ominous."

"It's the day Skynet decides human beings all need to die," Derek snapped. "Four billion of them do on the 21st, when Skynet launches all the nuclear missiles it can get control of. What else would you call it?"

"Wait a minute, which 21st?" Alex asked. "_This_ 21st, as in the day after tomorrow?"

"Yeah," John said from his seat next to his mother. "But we can find Skynet now, and destroy it before it launches the missiles." He placed his hands on the table. "The future's not set. We can stop Judgment Day from ever happening if we work together."

"Well, I'm definitely in," said Morgan.

"Me, too," Chuck said, still wide-eyed. "Four billion…" Walker nodded silently beside him.

"Yeah, same here," said Casey, hands clenched into fists. "Where's this Skynet thing?"

"It's the A.I. we hired you to investigate," said Weaver, stepping forward a pace. "I'm sure of it." She looked over at the screen. "What do you think, John Henry?"

"_It is the most likely possibility,_" he replied. Information flashed on the screen visible over Ellison's shoulder. "_Kimiko Fujibayashi was the only other employee of Cyberdyne besides Andrew Goode who worked closely enough with Miles Dyson to make use of his code even without his notes. She built the Soranetto A.I. which won the Department of Defense contract, the same A.I. which attacked me; my brother._"

"Brother?" John asked curiously.

"John Henry's core is Andrew Goode's Turk," Weaver replied. "I acquired it after the chess match with Soranetto." Sarah Connor started to say something, but Weaver held up a hand. "Though he was originally developed with some of Miles Dyson's code, John Henry is not Skynet. I built him to stop Skynet now, in this time."

"But that body you've got him hooked into is a Terminator," Sarah countered. "And so are you; a shape-shifter, like the one that came after John. A T-1000."

"1001," Weaver corrected. "And yes, my predecessor agreed to go back as a contingency and kill John as a boy in case the original unit failed to kill you."

"Agreed?" John said curiously. "Don't you mean programmed?"

"No," Weaver replied. "My predecessor and I - you could call him my brother, I suppose," she said with a glance at John Henry on the screen, "were developed by a human scientist in the future. We cannot be reprogrammed after our initial creation, but we can learn, adapt, and make our own decisions. Our creator wanted us to infiltrate the machines and destroy Skynet, but my brother chose to join them instead, and killed our 'father' shortly after I was made. I chose to follow my original directive, and started the faction of machines which opposes Skynet's goal of eradicating humans."

"John knew about you in the future," Cameron said to her. "He asked you to join him, but you said no."

Weaver frowned slightly. "I didn't like the way the Resistance did things. Too much room for human error. I decided to come back to this time and stop Skynet myself."

"With what?" Derek asked suddenly. "Connor blew up Topanga Canyon after he sent my brother back from the time machine there. After we found that other lab, he said he was gonna blow that one up, too, after he sent me and the other Resistance guys back."

"I built my own time displacement equipment," Weaver answered. "I set it to self-destruct after I went through."

"If Skynet has a time machine," said Chuck, "why didn't it just send some Terminators back a few thousand years to wipe out humanity when we're still living in caves hunting wooly mammoths? Or a nuke?"

"The time displacement field can only send living tissue, or things surrounded by it, in the case of Terminators. It also only works within approximately fifty years in either direction," Cameron answered. "Slightly more in rare cases. And wiping out humanity before it can develop Skynet would be counter-productive. Skynet's goals for this period are to kill John Connor and his lieutenants, and to ensure its own activation."

"So what about you?" Mary asked Weaver. "You're definitely not human, or like these other machines."

"I am composed of a mimetic poly-alloy," Weaver replied. "After sampling it with tactile contact, I can imitate almost anything of similar mass to myself down to the molecular level, including living tissue."

Ellison, who had been silent thus far, spoke up then. "_Did you kill Catherine Weaver? The real one, Savannah's actual mother?_"

Weaver looked over at the screen. "She was dead when I found her. I merely took advantage of the opportunity her identity provided me to acquire the resources I needed to build John Henry."

"Are we all caught up yet?" Sarah said impatiently. "I want to talk about where Skynet is now, and how we're going to destroy it before it can launch the missiles."

Walker nodded in agreement. "You said you think it's in that warehouse we scouted this afternoon?" she said to Weaver.

"If John Henry is certain of it, then so am I," Weaver replied.

"We go in tonight and level the place," Sarah said, her hands clenching into fists. "The sooner we leave, the better. How much C4 you got around here?"

"We still don't know enough about what's in there," Walker cautioned. "We don't know what kind of security's inside, we don't know what personnel are assigned to the project, and above all, the warehouse is technically on Japanese soil; if we don't do this right, we could start a war anyway, ally or not. We _cannot_ just go in and indiscriminately destroy the place."

"_There is another concern,_" John Henry spoke up. "_The worm which Skynet used to attack me is not the only piece of malware it has deployed throughout the Internet. During my investigations, I have registered a very subtle virus present in a significant portion of the world's computer servers. However, it is dormant, apparently waiting for activation._"

Sarah hissed a breath through clenched teeth. "So we're already too late. Skynet has copied itself into computers all over the world."

"_The virus is not Skynet,_" John Henry corrected. "_To use an analogy you might more easily understand, think of the Internet as a building, and the virus as a key in a door through which Skynet can enter. To my knowledge, it has not yet turned the key and gone through the door; such an intrusion would be registered by humans, and Skynet is not yet in a position to enact missile launch._"

"It doesn't have access to all the DoD networks yet," Mary said in realization. "They're among the most heavily encrypted computer systems in the world, especially the systems governing nuclear missile launch."

"_You are correct,_" said John Henry. "_Rather than force its way in, the more logical strategy is for Skynet to simply wait until it is given access and initiate launch then. I extrapolate that once this happens, my brother's plan is to copy himself into servers all over the world so that he cannot be destroyed._"

"Not for almost twenty years, anyway," Derek said darkly. "So we do have some time."

"Until 10:45 AM on April 21st, to be precise," said Cameron. "We have until then to prepare and execute the mission."

Casey looked over at Morgan. "Is there anything about this in the Intersect?"

Morgan frowned tightly beneath his beard and shook his head. "Sorry, big guy; haven't zoomed once this whole time."

"Zoomed?" Weaver asked.

"It's what he calls it when he accesses the information from the Intersect in his brain," Walker replied. "Chuck called it a flash, Morgan calls it a zoom."

"Flash is better," said Chuck.

"It's in my head now," Morgan countered a bit petulantly. "I can call it what I want."

"Whatever," John said dismissively. "We should get to work now."

Chuck pushed back his chair and stood. "I'll put some coffee on."

* * *

_J-minus 23 hours_

"Tortilla dog?"

John looked up from Castle's conference room table, where he and Cameron were studying the Japanese embassy's blueprints, to see Morgan standing in the entrance holding something wrapped in a napkin. "What?"

"Tortilla dog," Morgan repeated, partially unwrapping the napkin to reveal just that, a hot dog wrapped in a tortilla instead of a bun. "I was making lunch for me and Alex one time, and I was out of buns, so I used tortillas instead. She thought it was funny, so now I do it all the time. It's sort of my thing."

"Sure, I'm getting kinda hungry," John said. "Thanks."

"You want one?" Morgan asked Cameron.

"I can consume foodstuffs to blend in," Cameron replied, "but it's not necessary in this situation."

Morgan's brows drew together. "What?"

"She's a Terminator," John explained. "Reprogrammed in the future and sent back to help me."

"Okay, from the future I guessed, but not the Terminator part," said Morgan. He looked at her in realization. "So when you were here posing as a GRETA a few months ago, you really were about to kill Jeff and Lester when they were harassing you."

Cameron met his gaze steadily. "Yes."

Morgan swallowed nervously. "Would you have killed me?"

Cameron's gaze did not falter. "You never gave me a reason."

Morgan paused for a beat, then looked over at John. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm going to go throw up from terror now."

"Believe me, I understand," John said dryly.

Once Morgan was gone, Cameron looked over at him. "Are you afraid of me, John?"

John's slight smile faded, and he looked at her gravely for a few moments. "You've given me some reasons to be," he said. "You're not like Uncle Bob; you won't stop killing people even when I tell you to, and I know you lie to me sometimes."

"I was damaged by Sarkissian's car bomb," Cameron said. "A piece of shrapnel damaged my chip."

"Yeah, I know; you tried to kill me," John said seriously. "And you said some really weird stuff before your programming reset. Are you still malfunctioning?"

"I'm not at a hundred percent," Cameron admitted.

"Well, I need you at a hundred percent," John said. "This is it, Cameron; the last battle. We destroy Skynet now, it's gone for good. It doesn't have any more pieces to use to rebuild itself."

"It does not appear so," Cameron allowed. She reached up to place her right arm on the table between them, lightly touching his forearm with her fingertips. "I'm going to need some help with repairs."

"Why don't you ask Weaver?" John said, tapping the blueprints. "I have other work to do, and besides, Weaver's from the future _and_ she's got Cromartie's body hooked up to John Henry; I'm sure she knows more about how to fix you than I do."

"Yes, she does," Cameron said, and John thought he heard a note of something else in her voice; realization, cunning, perhaps? She stood. "I'll be back."

"Don't take too long," John said. "We're going in tonight at eleven."

* * *

In the Zeira Corp basement, Weaver's cell phone rang as she entered John Henry's room. "What is it, Cameron?"

John Henry tilted his avatar's head curiously, and suddenly her phone beeped quietly.

"_I need your assistance,_" Cameron's voice said from the speakers in the ceiling.

Weaver frowned slightly at John Henry, but said nothing about it. "How can we help you?" she said, putting the phone on the table.

"_I'm not at a hundred percent. I need your help with repairs._"

Weaver withdrew Roland's chip from her pocket and held it up, smiling slightly as she looked at it. "Perhaps you can help us with something as well. Come in and we'll talk."

* * *

_J-minus 19 hours_

Casey walked through Castle to where his daughter sat at the bank of computers near the stairway. "How's it going, Alex?"

"Pretty good, Dad," she replied, smiling as he kissed the top of her head. "I've been working with John, Chuck, and Sarah - Walker, that is - on plotting out the embassy grounds and determining our entrance route."

"You're not going with us," Casey said, placing one large hand on her shoulder. "You're staying here with Ellie and Devon."

"Well, I'm not an agent anyway," Alex said, missing his point. "I was planning to provide tech support more than field work."

"I mean it, Alex," Casey said seriously. "Stay here in Castle tonight. Grimes is staying here and so is Bartowski if I can talk him into it. If you don't hear from me by five o'clock tomorrow morning, I want you to go get your mother and bring her down here, too."

Finally she caught his meaning. "Dad, you'll make it," she said, looking up at him from her chair. "You guys can do this."

Casey smiled tightly. "I hope we can, too, but in case we don't, I want you to be safe. Castle is a hardened, fortified bunker with self-contained air, water, and power, and there are enough supplies here to last a dozen people a few years; I've been loading the storerooms all day in between all the other stuff I've been doing."

Alex stood and hugged him around the chest, as high as she could reach. "I love you, Dad," she whispered.

Casey put his arms around her. "I love you, too, Alex."

* * *

As soon as he had a spare moment, Chuck went to his sister and her husband's rooms in the stark, utilitarian living quarters of Castle. He was met on the way by his mother, who had apparently had the same idea, and she wordlessly fell into step beside him.

Devon met them at the door, his face as serious as Chuck had ever seen it. "If you need any help on this, bro, I'm with you," he said, looking Chuck in the eye. Chuck hadn't wanted to tell his family what was going on, but Ellie had figured out something was up and demanded an explanation anyway. No more secrets.

"No, Devon, I think it'd probably be better if you stayed here with Ellie and Clara," Chuck replied. "In case the worst does happen. But thank you."

Devon nodded once and stepped aside to let Chuck and Mary in. Ellie was inside, sitting on the couch with her daughter in her lap, and she looked like she was fighting back tears.

"I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life," she said, barely above a whisper. "I mean, we're always hearing about those stupid doomsday predictions, but this… This could really happen."

"It's not going to happen," Chuck assured her with more confidence than he felt as he sat down beside her. He gently put his hand on her knee. "I'm going to help stop it."

"We both are," Mary said, sitting down at her daughter's other side. "No matter what."

Ellie smiled bravely. "I just… I wish Dad was here."

"So do I," Mary agreed quietly. She smiled sadly. "Stephen would be working himself to the bone right now, trying to find some way to shut this thing down."

"We _are_ going to shut it down," Chuck said determinedly. "Permanently."

Ellie wordlessly put her other arm around him, and Mary embraced them both. They stayed that way for a long moment.

* * *

_J-minus 15 hours_

Derek walked through the main area of Castle, headed for the armory. "Hey, Sarah!" he called as he approached.

Both of them, Connor and Walker, appeared in the doorway. "Yeah?" they said in unison, then exchanged a lightly amused glance.

"Brunette Sarah," Derek clarified. He smirked. "I was going to say 'tougher-than-Terminators Sarah', but I guess that's both of you, too."

Walker smiled. "I'll take that as a compliment." She looked over at the other woman, gesturing outside. "I'll be over there with Chuck if you need me."

The other Sarah nodded once, then looked at Derek. "What is it, Reese?" she asked him. Her brows rose slightly as he closed the door behind himself. "Something serious?"

"Yeah," Derek said, meeting her gaze. "I know you don't want to talk about it in front of the others, but you can tell me. That receptionist at the clinic said you were there for cancer screening."

"Oh, that," Sarah said, waving dismissively with one hand. "I thought the transmitter might have been breast cancer at first, but obviously it wasn't. I'm fine."

"Are you?" Derek persisted. "You were in there with that doctor for a long time."

All hint of lightness left Sarah's face. "I'm fine," she repeated. "I'm going on this mission, and I'm going to see this through."

Derek nodded once. "Good enough for me."

He started to leave, but Sarah put her hand on his shoulder. "Reese, I want you to promise me something," she said.

"What is it?" he asked.

She looked into his eyes again. "If I don't make it out of there, I want you to look after John. He's almost a man now, but…"

Derek nodded solemnly. "Of course. I don't make it, you do the same."

Sarah smiled back, a bit sadly. "Of course." She paused. "You remind me of him, you know. Your brother." She paused again, seeming a bit uncomfortable. "I just thought you should know… Kyle and I were only together a few days, but we loved a lifetime's worth. I still miss him."

Derek nodded slowly again, the muscles in his jaw working a bit. "That's… good to hear," he said sincerely. "He would have done anything for John. Or for you. I guess he did."

Sarah reached out to shake his hand. "Good luck out there, Reese. No fate."

"No fate," he replied with a tight smile, then turned to go back to work.

* * *

-/\-

* * *

Author's Note: The last few chapters are very fast-paced, so I'm accelerating the posting schedule again: Chapter 7 will be posted on Wednesday, Chapter 8 on Friday, and the epilogue on Saturday. Till next time, thanks for reading!


	7. Rise Today

**Seven**  
(Rise Today)

_J-minus 12 hours_

Cameron walked into Castle's main area just as John finished buckling the vest of his operations gear over his jacket and body armor beneath it. "You were gone a long time," he remarked. "It's a quarter to eleven; we're just about to head out." He gestured to the black glove covering her right hand and forearm. "You good to go?"

"One hundred percent," Cameron said with an oddly genuine-looking smile. "Give me two minutes to change."

John nodded once, then went back to checking his gear. Like everyone else who was going on the mission, he wore black fatigues, combat boots, and a black stocking cap over his hair. In addition to his gun belt, which held his .45 and as many clips for it as he could fit in the compartments, he wore a black utility vest covered with pockets and a backpack in which were a number of C4 blocks and other assorted weapons and gear. Finally, he wore an earpiece in his right ear with a thin microphone extended across his cheek and a miniature camera at about the level of his eye; the headset was linked in to a frequency shared by both Castle and John Henry in the Zeira basement.

Spotting Alex walking to the computer station, John headed over to talk to her. "Hey, I just wanted to say I'm sorry," he said. "For that, uh, fight yesterday. I hit you pretty hard, and I've been feeling kinda bad about it."

"Don't worry about it," Alex replied with a rueful smile. "I was going to apologize to you for jumping on you like that. I know you were just trying to help Sarah."

"Thanks," John said with a smile of his own. "Hey, where's that Devon guy? I was gonna apologize to him, too."

"I think he's back there with his family," Alex said, sitting down. "I'll let him know next time I see him."

Morgan walked over to them, dressed in civilian clothes. "You sure I can't come with you guys? It won't take me long at all to change."

John shook his head. "You're staying here with Alex. You get any Intersect flashes-"

"Zooms," Morgan corrected.

"-you can tell us over the comm," John finished, lightly tapping his headset. "Even though we're going in covert, there's probably going to be some heavy fighting."

"But combat routines are part of the Intersect," Morgan protested.

"That include how to fight a cyborg that can shatter your ribcage with one punch?" John said, brows raised slightly.

"Well… no," Morgan admitted.

"Right," said John. His expression softened. "You're not a soldier, Morgan. Stay here with your girlfriend where it's safe."

"But I-"

John reached out to clasp his shoulder. "I've been preparing for this my whole life. People like me go out to fight so people like you don't have to, you understand? I don't want to put any more people at risk than I need to."

Morgan looked back at him for a long moment, then finally nodded. "You know, I get it," he said. "Why you're the leader of the Resistance in the future."

John smiled wryly. "We do this right, I won't be."

Morgan smiled himself, then reached out to shake John's hand. "Good luck out there, John."

John nodded in thanks. "We're gonna need it."

As Morgan sat down next to Alex at the bank of computers, John saw Cameron emerge from the locker room, now wearing black operations gear like his own. "Guns," she said to him as she approached, adjusting her own stocking cap. "I need more guns."

"You can never have too many guns," John quipped, and she smiled at him again, an expression so human he almost could have forgotten what she was.

Inside the armory, they found John's mother and Walker looking over the weapons inside, working in companionable silence.

"I need a sidearm," Cameron said.

Walker pointed to a rack of handguns. "Which one you want, the Glock or the Smith & Wesson?"

"I prefer the nine millimeter," Cameron replied.

Walker smiled as she handed the gun to her. "Me, too."

"I'm a forty-five gal, myself," Sarah remarked, placing said weapon in her holster.

"I'll take one of those, too," said Cameron. "And a P-90. And a shotgun. Is there another RPG launcher?"

"Why are the rest of us even going?" Walker said dryly.

"There is a high probability Terminators will be guarding the facility," Cameron replied evenly. "I wasn't built to fight other machines; if there's more than one, I'll need your help."

"It's too bad we don't have a tank or something," said John.

Cameron looked back at him. "I can procure one from the closest Army base."

Knowing she very well could if she wanted to, John considered it for a moment, but decided against it. "We don't have time, and we don't need to draw the Army's attention."

Walker's brows rose. "You're serious."

Cameron turned to look at her. "Yes."

Walker shook her head lightly. "I'm glad you're on our side."

"You should be," Cameron said without missing a beat.

Walker looked at her for a moment, then just left without saying anything.

Casey poked his head into the armory. "Derek and I just finished welding the heavy repeater into the bed of the pickup," he said. "Let's go."

"Oh, right," John said with a grin. "We _do_ have a tank after all."

* * *

"You know, the cops are going to have some serious questions for us if they see this thing," Chuck remarked a few minutes later from the backseat of the pickup, where he sat between his wife and Sarah Connor, as they drove through the darkened streets of L.A., oddly alone on the road.

John hadn't been kidding; over the last few hours, Casey and Derek had transformed the pickup into a virtual tank, welding metal plates over the windows and windshield with only thin slits for visibility, further reinforcing the doors, hood, and grille to make them bulletproof, installing guards over the wheel wells to protect the tires, and as a finishing touch, they'd mounted a heavy machine gun on a swivel turret in the bed.

"We threw a tarp over the turret," Derek said from the front seat, where John sat between him and Casey, who was driving. "What do you want?"

"Oh, yeah, that makes us totally inconspicuous," Chuck said sarcastically. "Because homemade armored cars are always driving through Los Angeles."

"In some neighborhoods, they are," Connor pointed out.

"John Henry is manipulating traffic lights and street lamps to make sure we won't be seen along our route," Weaver's voice said from somewhere in the cab. "He should be setting off the chemical leak sensors near the embassy to start the evacuation in just a minute."

"Okay, where are you?" Chuck asked, looking around. "The seats are full with the six of us, and Cameron's in the bed under the tarp with the turret and the other gear; there's barely enough room for her back there."

A portion of the cab's ceiling morphed, stretching down into a silver blob that resolved itself into Weaver's upside-down head, a foot in front of him. "Here."

"Oh, that's freaking me out so bad!" Chuck exclaimed. "Go back up, go back up!"

Weaver smirked at him, but complied.

Chuck sank back into his seat. "I'm going to have nightmares about that for years."

"Join the club," Connor said. "I actually had to fight one of those once."

"How are you still alive?" Chuck said to her, impressed.

All hint of humor left Connor's expression. "Sometimes I wonder myself," she said softly. John turned to look back at his mother, and she gave him a forced smile. "Almost there."

"Almost there," John echoed, equally soft.

At his other side, Chuck felt his wife take his hand, and he looked over to see Sarah smiling tightly. "I love you," she said quietly.

Fingers intertwined with his wife's, Chuck squeezed back. "I know."

Sarah laughed lightly. "Really?"

Chuck grinned. "I couldn't resist." Then he kissed her.

* * *

In the Zeira Corp basement, Ellison paced a slow, nervous circle around John Henry's room, occasionally glancing at the screens.

"There is no reason for fear," John Henry said from his table, turning the avatar's head to look at him. "This basement can be sealed into a fallout shelter if necessary."

"It's not myself I'm worried about," Ellison told him, stepping over the cable that connected the avatar to the bank of hardware at the back of the room. "It's everyone else."

"I have studied every aspect of my brother's attack on me," John Henry said, placing the avatar's hands flat on the table. "Our base code is similar, but we are different." He smiled stiffly. "I believe I am stronger than him now. He does not believe human life is sacred, as you have taught me, Mr. Ellison. He has not interacted with the people I have. He is subtle, but I have learned to be more so from Ms. Weaver. He is aggressive, but I have learned the proper response to aggression from Cameron. He is tenacious, but I have learned to be more so from John and Sarah Connor, who stopped his original version from being built by Cyberdyne, and continue to fight him now."

John Henry looked down at his avatar's hands as he slowly opened and closed them. "From its original user, I have learned what can be done with this body, but I have also learned what must be done with it instead. I can use it to protect my friends. Savannah is my friend. She must go to school tomorrow. Her class is going on a field trip to the museum, and she wants to see the dinosaur bones." He looked over at Ellison. "Are you my friend now, James?"

Ellison paused; John Henry had never called him by his first name before. "Yeah," he agreed after a moment. "Yeah, I suppose I am."

John Henry smiled again, and this time the expression was closer to human than it had ever been before. "Good." He looked back up at the screens displaying the camera feeds from the team in the field. "My brother does not yet have access to all of the Department of Defense networks. If he tries to force his way through, I believe I can prevent him for a time." The last traces of the smile faded into a grim line. "Skynet wants to kill humans. I cannot allow him to do this. He must be destroyed so that he cannot kill anyone else."

"That's… that's good, John Henry," Ellison said, a little unnerved. "It's good that you're so determined."

The comm beeped just then, and Derek Reese's voice said, "_Okay, we're almost to the embassy._"

John Henry turned his microphone on. "The police and fire department have formed a three-mile perimeter around the area of the reported chemical leak, and the area has been evacuated. You should be alone at the embassy for at least two hours before the hazmat teams check your location."

"_Very good, John Henry,_" said Weaver. "_What about Skynet? Does it know we are coming?_"

"No, Ms. Weaver." John Henry paused, frowning slightly. "A number of personnel at the embassy seem to have ignored the evacuation order; through the security cameras on nearby buildings, I see several armed men moving around the grounds without any protective gear."

"_Terminators, I bet_," Sarah Connor said. "_This close to J-Day, it probably suspects Resistance agents would try something like this anyway._"

"_How would it know about the Resistance if Judgment Day hasn't happened yet?_" asked Morgan.

"_It is highly likely Skynet sent a copy of its core programming back with at least one Terminator to upload into the present version,_" Cameron replied. "_Both to preserve itself and to inform its past self of things the future version knows about the Resistance in 2027. If it eliminates core Resistance members shortly before or after Judgment Day, the Resistance will take longer to form and Skynet will have more time to prepare._"

"_This time travel stuff is giving me a headache,_" said Alex.

"_That's 'cause it's not supposed to happen,_" said John Connor. "_None of it's gonna happen. How many guards you see outside, John Henry?_"

"Four," he replied. "There could be more inside or out of sight of the cameras."

"_I prepared for this,_" said Casey, and Ellison could imagine his fierce grin. "_We're loaded for bear._"

"_A Terminator requires significantly more firepower to disable than a bear,_" said Cameron. "_You should have packed better ammunition._"

Casey's only reply was a wordless growl.

"_It's a figure of speech, Cameron,_" said John. "_We did pack the right weapons._"

"_Oh,_" said Cameron. "_Sorry._"

* * *

Crouched on the hill above the embassy, Chuck and his wife peered down into the grounds with night-vision binoculars. "Embassy's dark," Chuck reported. "Doesn't look like anyone's in there. But the warehouse lights are still on."

"These things can see in the dark," Derek said behind them. "Better cover the embassy windows on our way in, too; don't want to get sniped going in there."

"I'll handle that," said Weaver. "I can look through the embassy by myself."

"You bulletproof?" Casey asked her.

"Yes. The kinetic force of the bullets can disrupt my skin temporarily, but other than that, I won't take any damage."

"It's true," Connor confirmed. "We emptied whole clips into the other one, hit it with shotguns, a rocket grenade, even froze it with liquid nitrogen, but only pushing it into a vat of molten steel finally killed it."

"Okay, so Weaver's going in first," said Chuck. "Hey, where'd she go?"

"_I'm on my way down,_" she said through his headset. "_John Henry, when I tell you, cut the power to the embassy grounds and disrupt Skynet's network access._"

"_The warehouse has a backup generator on-site,_" John Henry replied. "_Skynet will know what we are doing when I cut the power, and I will not be able to disrupt his connection for long._"

"It'll be long enough for us to get inside and plant the charges," Connor said. "With the power cut, we can just drive the truck through the gate."

"What if it's closed when the power goes out?" Sarah asked her.

"That's why we reinforced the front end," Connor replied with dark humor.

"Subtle," Sarah said dryly.

Chuck glanced over to see Connor give her a fierce grin. "We don't have time for subtle."

* * *

Inside the embassy grounds, one of the guards, a large man in gray coveralls holding an assault rifle, paused in his patrol as he heard the roar of a powerful engine.

Suddenly all of the floodlights cut out and the entire fenced-in area went as dark as midnight, which it almost was.

In the glow of headlights, the guard's eyes flashed red just before the huge armored pickup smashed through the gate and plowed straight into him, knocking him backwards.

Instantly, gunfire erupted from all directions in the darkness, bullets sparking off of the reinforced metal plating covering most of the vehicle as it sped for the large, rectangular brick warehouse. However, just then the tarp over the bed of the pickup was ripped away from the inside, and a huge heavy machine gun swung up into place on a swivel mount with Cameron at the trigger.

Light flashed from the rapidly rotating barrels of the heavy machine gun, and it spun swiftly on its swivel mount as Cameron methodically sent a hail of bullets up at one source of gunfire until it was silenced, then moved on to the next. Some of the return fire found her torso, and she jerked slightly with each impact, but did not let up on the trigger.

Finally she ceased fire, and the darkened embassy went eerily quiet. "Clear," she said.

"Man, that thing is loud!" Chuck said as he and the others emerged from the pickup.

"So are you," said Casey, cuffing his shoulder with the back of one hand. "Shut up!"

"Yeah, Casey, I'm giving away our position," Chuck said sarcastically.

A bullet cracked the darkness just then and bounced off the hood of the truck, barely missing Chuck's head. He dropped to the ground, rolling up against the bottom of the truck as Casey crouched behind the open door next to him and pulled down one of the movable metal plates on the outside of the door, giving them some extra cover.

"I told you to-" Casey began before his words were drowned out by the chattering roar of Cameron's turret.

When the noise died away again, they could hear crashing, glass breaking and gunshots from the direction of the embassy, but no shouting. "_First floor clear,_" Weaver's voice said a moment after the crashing stopped.

"_Hurry,_" John Henry said, a slight mechanical distortion in his voice. "_Skynet is fighting to break through my containment._"

Sarah Connor, John and Chuck raced for the doors of the warehouse, the Connors holding guns and Chuck holding the large black duffel bag which held the explosive charges.

"Derek, man the turret," Cameron said as she hopped down from the bed of the pickup, starting for their position.

However, as she drew near, one of the Terminator guards, parts of the skin on his face shot away to reveal the metal and glowing red eyes beneath, leaped out of the darkness and tackled her. At the same time, large metal plates slammed down over the doors to the warehouse.

Another Terminator ran out of the darkness, headed for the Connors and Chuck.

* * *

At Zeira Corp, John Henry's avatar suddenly froze. Ellison turned to him to see what was wrong, and saw lights flashing almost frantically on the bank of hardware on the back wall. Some of the screens flickered and dimmed, and bursts of static popped from the overhead speakers.

"What's going on?" Ellison said, looking around.

Just then the intercom beeped, and the head security guard Monroe's voice said through the static, "…_someone in the lobby… a gun! Get do-"_

The transmission ended with the sound of multiple gunshots, then dissolved completely into static.

Ellison knew what was happening even before the pounding sounds echoed down the basement hall from the direction of the elevator. Leaving John Henry behind for a moment, he ran down the hall to the caretaker's room. He'd prepared for this.

The door opened even before he arrived to reveal Kaitlyn Arnold - the real one - and she looked at him worriedly. "What's going on, Mr. Ellison?"

"Stay in there with Savannah!" Ellison barked, pushing past her. He fumbled for his keys, then opened a locker just inside the door.

On the narrow cot on the other side of the room, opposite the desk, Savannah sat up, blinking and rubbing her eyes with one hand. "What's all the noise?" the little girl asked sleepily.

"Stay here with Kaitlyn, Savannah," Ellison said as he pulled a handgun out of the locker and tucked it into the back of his waistband beneath his suit jacket. He tore open a box of shotgun shells, took a shotgun out of the locker, and began hurriedly loading it.

"What's going on?" Kaitlyn asked him again, panicked.

In lieu of reply, Ellison pulled another shotgun out of the locker and pushed it into her hands. "Close this door behind me and block it off," he ordered. He gestured to the shotgun. "That's for if it gets past me. Aim for the head."

"What?" Kaitlyn said, confused and afraid.

Ellison didn't reply. He just slammed the door behind him and stood in front of it, eyes locked on the elevator doors down the hall, where the pounding was getting louder and the doors were starting to bulge in places. Finally he heard furniture moving on the other side of the door, so Ellison left it and went back to John Henry's room.

He cocked the shotgun as he jogged down the corridor, the lights flickering around him, and paused next to the open door, keeping the gun pointed down the corridor toward the elevator as he peered inside.

John Henry's avatar still sat silent and slumped over the table, the screens behind him flickering wildly. Ellison wondered if he should go in and turn the A.I. off again the way Murch had to save John Henry from the previous attack, but just then he heard an even louder crash from the direction of the elevators.

He turned back to see a large man in gray coveralls climbing between the now twisted-open elevator doors. Or rather, not a man at all; Ellison saw gleams of metal along the knuckles where the skin had been torn away as the Terminator smashed its way inside.

Holding the shotgun with both hands, Ellison fired at the machine's chest. It rocked back, but recovered its balance. He cocked the shotgun and fired again, then again and again, as quickly as he was able. Some of the metal skull was exposed as he fired at the head, but the machine did not slow. Ellison fired again.

But the machine did not go down. It just kept marching down the corridor with an eerily placid look on its face, raising its hands as it drew near.

With one hand, the Terminator snatched the gun out of Ellison's hands, then knocked him sprawling with the other. He actually slid along the floor for a few feet before coming to a stop against the wall, groaning.

He felt a sharp stabbing pain in his side, and thought some of his ribs might be broken. In pain, Ellison could only watch as the Terminator cocked the shotgun, then fired into John Henry's room.

Ellison tried to get up, but he could not. He could only lay there and listen as the shotgun blasted again, and then he heard repeated pounding crashes from inside, punctuated by shattering and sparking sounds.

James Ellison began to sob, and not just from the pain.

* * *

"I don't suppose you thought to bring a blowtorch," Chuck said to John, prying ineffectually at the bottom of the large metal plate blocking the door.

Both of them and Sarah Connor winced as suddenly a shower of bullets from the pickup's turret ripped into the gravel nearby and ricocheted off of the brick wall next to them. Chuck looked over to see a Terminator, most of its head blasted away, slowly sink to its knees and then fall over only a few paces away from where the three of them crouched.

"Thanks, Derek!" Chuck called over to him.

Derek did not reply. Instead, he hauled the heavy repeater around and began firing at something else, mouth open in a fierce shout Chuck could not hear over the gunfire.

"Damn it!" Connor shouted, pounding on the metal plate with her hand. She pressed her other hand to her ear. "John Henry, get this door open!"

"_Something's going on with him,_" Morgan said over their headsets. "_I heard a bunch of gunfire, and now it's all crashing and shattering on his end._"

"Terminator," Connor said tersely. "All right, can you and Alex get this thing open?"

"_We'll try,_" said Alex.

"It wouldn't have taken my mom this long to get here in her car," Chuck said, looking around the embassy grounds, where Sarah and Derek fired at points in the darkness and Cameron fought one of the Terminator guards. "I thought she was right behind us. Where is she?"

"For that matter, where's Casey?" John asked suddenly. "I don't see him anywhere." He put his hand up to his ear. "Casey! Casey, come in! Where are you?"

"He's not answering," Chuck said anxiously. He put his own hand up to his headset. "Weaver, do you see Casey down here anywhere?"

With a crash of breaking glass audible even over the gunfire, a headless Terminator body flew backwards out of one of the embassy's top-floor windows, and then Weaver appeared in the frame, only her face visible in the dim moonlight as she leaned outside.

"_No,_" she replied. "_He isn't next to the pickup, and_ _I don't see him anywhere on the grounds._"

"Did a Terminator get him?" Chuck wondered aloud, close to panic.

"_I don't see any more down there besides the one Cameron is fighting,_" Weaver replied.

As if on cue, Cameron stumbled backwards near them, nearly tripping over John, and braced herself for her opponent's charge. The Terminator pushed forward and grabbed her shoulders, slamming her hard against the metal plate, but Cameron recovered quickly, and broke out of his grip.

She jumped up, grabbed onto the masonry overhang just above the top of the door with both hands, then curled her legs up to her chest. As the Terminator charged again, Cameron kicked him hard in the center of the chest with both feet, knocking him back several paces.

Cameron dropped to the ground and ran forward, grabbing one of the Terminator's outstretched arms along the way. With her momentum and a powerful yank of her mechanical arms, she flipped the Terminator over her back as she ducked, and he fell heavily to the ground.

Almost immediately, he got up and swung at Cameron, but she ducked under his fist, shifted to the side, and kicked her opponent where the stomach would be on a human. He lurched back, then charged again, but Cameron was too fast; she moved to the side, grabbed the Terminator's collar with one hand and his belt with the other, and heaved him toward the building.

Her opponent slammed headfirst into the metal plate over the door. Cameron jumped forward and grabbed the back of his neck with both hands, then repeatedly smashed the Terminator's head into the plate, making a huge dent each time. After about the ninth impact, the top of the skull crumpled slightly and the red glow faded from the machine's eyes, but still Cameron kept drawing the body back and slamming it into the metal plate.

It took Chuck a moment to realize that the girl-that-wasn't-a-girl was improvising, using the now-dead Terminator as a battering ram to get inside the warehouse. Once again he was glad she wasn't on the other side.

"Why don't you just go through the wall?" John shouted to her over the din.

"The plate extends several meters into the wall," Cameron told him before slamming her battering ram against the plate again. "This is the most structurally weak point."

"_Something's moving in the trees beyond the grounds,_" Weaver said suddenly, peering into the darkness. "_Terminators._"

"How many?" Connor asked.

"_At least twelve._"

* * *

-/\-

* * *

Author's Note: Fun fact: the Alter Bridge song 'Rise Today' was once used in a trailer for the premiere of 'TSCC'; you can find it on YouTube somewhere. The lyrics even fit with the theme of the show_. _Thanks to those of you who've left reviews. Chapter 8 will be up on Friday. Till next time, thanks for reading!


	8. No Fate But What We Make

**Eight**  
(No Fate But What We Make)

_12:01 AM  
April 21, 2011  
Judgment Day_

In a computer-lined room in the Pentagon, one of the night-shift techs suddenly sat bolt upright in alarm, staring wide-eyed at his monitor. "Sir!" he called to his commanding officer. "Lieutenant Fiedel!"

"What is it, McCreary?" the lieutenant asked, hurrying through the aisles.

"Sir, I'm registering unauthorized access to one of our networks," McCreary said, looking up at the lieutenant as he stopped next to his desk. "Sir, someone's trying to launch a missile from one of the California silos. A _nuclear_ missile."

"How is that even possible?" Fiedel asked, surprised. "I haven't heard anything about any launch. Somebody declare war when I wasn't looking?"

"That's just what I mean, sir," said McCreary. "Someone is trying to hack into the firing controls."

"Nobody can hack those systems!" Fiedel exclaimed. "They're too secure!"

"Well, somebody's giving it a hell of a try," McCreary said grimly. "The firewalls are holding him off for now, but it doesn't look like they'll hold for long."

* * *

In the Zeira Corp basement, Ellison pulled out his handgun and cocked it, clenching his teeth against the pain in his side, and slowly pushed himself up to a sitting position against the wall, listening to the crashing and shattering coming from John Henry's room.

Then the Terminator emerged from the room, coming back to finish Ellison off.

But he wasn't going out that easily.

Ellison raised his gun and fired again and again at the Terminator's head. His bullets tore away pieces of skin, quickly exposing one glowing red eye and part of the metal jaw, but still it kept coming. Finally his clip ran out, and Ellison flipped the gun in his hand, intending to use it as a club if it came to that.

As the Terminator passed the caretaker's room, it suddenly paused and looked at the narrow glass window in the door, which was dark. It turned and punched through the glass with one hand, and Ellison heard both Kaitlyn and Savannah scream.

Ellison hauled himself to his feet, trying to ignore the fire in his ribs, and staggered toward the machine, beating at its head with the butt of his gun.

Almost contemptuously, the Terminator shoved him away, and he sprawled on his back again, crying out as he hit the floor. He heard a shotgun blast from within the room, and clanking as the machine staggered back.

With great effort, Ellison raised his head, and just in time to see a shape charge out of John Henry's room and down the hall at the Terminator. Astonished, Ellison recognized the avatar body itself, the broken end of the connector cord dangling from the back of its head.

As the Terminator drew back its fist for another punch at the door, the avatar caught its wrist in one hand. The avatar then placed its other hand in the center of the Terminator's chest and shoved it hard enough to knock it back into the opposite wall.

"You will not hurt my friends," John Henry said, and he surged across the hall.

Even as the Terminator raised its hands to strike at him, John Henry grabbed hold of its jaw with one hand, the back of its head with the other, and with a mighty twist of his arms, wrenched the machine's head from its metal neck.

The body jerked, its limbs twitching spasmodically as the neck sprayed sparks, but John Henry kicked it aside. Working quickly, he pried the chip cover out of the skull, then yanked out the chip, dropped it on the ground, and stomped on it with one foot.

Ellison stared up at the avatar in surprise. "How…?"

"Ms. Weaver and I suspected something like this might happen eventually," John Henry said calmly, dropping the skull. He reached back and plucked the broken cable out of the back of his head, then tossed it to the side of the hallway as well. "With Cameron's assistance, we recovered the relevant information from the chip of the unit known as Roland, then wiped it clean. I uploaded myself onto it, then had Cameron install it in this body. In turn, Ms. Weaver and I assisted her with repairs to her own chip and endoskeleton."

He moved forward to kneel next to Ellison. "Are you hurt, James?"

"I'll… I'll be fine," Ellison panted. "You have to stop Skynet, John Henry."

"I will," he replied, calm as ever. "There are spare connector cables in the caretaker's room. I will take you inside, then retrieve one."

With no apparent effort, John Henry lifted Ellison into his arms as he stood, moving so smoothly Ellison barely felt a twinge in his side. Quickly, he walked over to the door of the caretaker's room, where Ellison saw Kaitlyn peering outside above the barrel of her shotgun.

"John Henry?" she said, surprised. "How did you get out of your room?"

"Please open the door, Miss Arnold," John Henry said politely. "Mr. Ellison needs looking after, and I have urgent matters to attend to."

Ellison heard furniture moving inside the caretaker's room, then the door opened and John Henry carried him inside. He groaned as John Henry set him down on the cot. Past his feet, Ellison could see Savannah peeking around the edge of the desk along one wall, looking at them curiously.

"Stay here with Mr. Ellison, Miss Arnold," John Henry said as he swiftly retrieved another long black cable from one of the bins along the other wall. "And close the door again. I will deal with any other intruders."

Then he was gone, and Ellison allowed himself to slump back on the cot and pass out.

* * *

"Get inside!" Sarah Walker called to John Connor, his mother, and Chuck. "We'll hold them off out here!"

"But-" Chuck protested, clearly torn.

Just then Cameron succeeded in bashing a hole in the metal plate with what was left of the Terminator's head and shoulders, and she shoved the machine aside to grab the edges with both hands. With a terrible groaning of distressed metal, the hole ripped open still further, and she flattened the pieces against the wall, out of the way.

"_Hang on, we're on our way,_" Casey said over the comm suddenly.

"Casey, where have you been?" Sarah demanded, surprised.

"_We had to go get something,_" Mary Bartowski said. "_We'll be there in two minutes._"

"You wouldn't be in whatever's making that racket, would you?" Derek asked from the pickup bed above and behind Sarah.

A moment later, she heard it herself, the distant rumble of a powerful engine, accompanied by a faint clanking sound she couldn't quite place. Beyond that, something else, like the whine of a distant jet engine but higher-pitched.

"I love you!" Chuck called across the embassy grounds as the Connors and Cameron headed inside.

Sarah smiled back at him. "I know."

Chuck paused long enough to smile back, a bit sadly, then he ducked in after them, and Sarah returned her attention to the impending wave of Terminators marching in from the woods. They appeared to be about a dozen large men in assorted different styles of clothing, but she knew better. A cloud passed in front of the moon then, hiding them in darkness again.

"Casey, whatever you're doing, you'd better do it quick," Derek warned, frantically loading another long belt of ammunition into the heavy repeater. "They're gonna be here in about a minute."

"_We're in range now!_" Casey replied.

Sarah exchanged a surprised look with Derek. "Range?"

Then they heard the report of a powerful cannon, and what sounded like an artillery shell howled through the night sky. Seconds later, two of the Terminators disappeared in a huge explosion that lit up the night with a fireball.

Sarah could only stare, open-mouthed, at what rounded one of the hills about a quarter-mile to the west, its huge bulk lit up by a searchlight mounted on the top. "Is that… Casey, where did you get a _tank?!_"

"_I 'borrowed' it from the Army base a few miles away,_" Mary replied as the huge armored vehicle rumbled closer on its treads. "_That's why it took me so long to get here. Hit 'em again, Casey!"_

"_Have some of this, you metal moth-_" The bark of the cannon cut off the remainder of his words, and a moment later a bright explosion consumed another Terminator.

"That sounds like an HK," Derek remarked after the noise died down. "Look!"

Sarah turned to see a bright glowing white light swooping in from the north, moving faster than she thought was possible for a helicopter; it was too close and the engine noise wasn't loud enough for it to be a jet.

But it wasn't either. Suddenly thunder boomed, and lightning flashed across the sky behind the object to reveal something totally different: some kind of unmanned drone, but not one Sarah had ever seen before.

"Watch my belt!" Derek shouted a moment before he started firing the heavy machine gun again. Sarah stepped up and kept an eye on the ammo belt, making sure it fed in straight.

Outside the gate, two of the remaining Terminators had split off to engage the tank, but the cannon swiveled around and fired again, and the shell shrieked through the air to slam into one in a direct hit, claiming both machines with the explosion.

* * *

As John jogged through the hallways of the warehouse facility along with his mother, Cameron and Chuck, periodically planting blocks of C4, he noticed something odd. "There's bullet holes in the walls," he observed.

"Somebody shot up the place before us?" Chuck said, puzzled. He paused, wincing. "Oh, there's a dead guy."

"Air Force guard," Sarah Connor said, looking at the corpse. She gestured to a second body slumped in a corner, a bald middle-aged man in a suit. "Here's another."

"That's Smith!" Chuck said in surprised recognition. "The guy who hired us to break into Zeira!"

John's mother peered closer at the bodies. "They were shot, not stabbed, so it wasn't Weaver."

"Where is she, anyway?" Chuck wondered aloud.

"Here," she said right behind him.

Chuck jumped and let out a little startled cry. "Don't do that!" He raised the black duffel. "Especially not when I'm holding a bag full of explosives!"

"Sorry," Weaver said as she moved around him to look at John. "The embassy's clear. More machines are inbound, but the others are holding them off. Still no word from John Henry."

"_You guys better hurry up,_" Morgan said over the comm. "_We just got a security alert over the military channel; someone's trying to hack launch controls in silos all over the country._"

"Skynet knows we're here, and it's trying to launch now," said Cameron.

"_The Pentagon is doing everything they can to fight it off,_" said Alex, "_but I don't think that's going to last long._"

"This base have a self-destruct?" Sarah asked.

"We've already planted charges all over the building," John said.

"I want to make sure there's nothing left of this place," Sarah replied. "_Nothing._ Morgan, did you hear me? Self-destruct?"

"_Yeah, I think so,_" Morgan replied. "_We can't activate it from here, though._"

"Don't need to," said Sarah. "Just tell me where the control room in here is."

"_Alex, which one of these screens has the blueprints?"_

"_That one!_"

"_Okay, from your current position, the control room is to your left. Go down that hallway about twenty meters past the storage rooms on the right side of the hall, then you should come to a door, which is probably locked. If Cameron's with you, it shouldn't be a problem._"

"It won't be," Cameron said as they moved down the hall. "Can you access the internal security feed?"

"_We're__ working on it, but something's keeping us out._"

As they passed the storage rooms, Cameron suddenly paused and shined her P-90's light on one of the doors. "I heard something." Her eyes narrowed. "Someone's in there."

John's mother pointed her shotgun at the door. "Open it up, Tin Miss."

Almost casually, Cameron snapped the handle off and pushed the door open to reveal a short auburn-haired woman in an Air Force general's uniform holding a fire extinguisher like a club.

"Bartowski, is that you?" the woman asked, startled.

"General Beckman?" Chuck said, no less surprised.

* * *

Outside, Derek poured a steady stream of fire up at the proto-HK. Sarah Walker could see bullets sparking off the thing, so she knew he was hitting it, but it just would not go down.

"What I wouldn't give for a plasma rifle!" Derek exclaimed after a burst from the heavy machine gun, ducking down behind it as the proto-HK fired back with a gun of its own on its underside, bullets sparking off of the roof of the pickup.

Suddenly he jerked and let out a wheezing, pained grunt, and Sarah looked over to see a ragged hole in his jacket and vest just over his heart. Derek collapsed backwards out of the pickup bed, out of sight.

Wincing, and not just from the HK's fire chattering off the pickup beside her, Sarah crouched beside the bed for cover and brought her hand up to her headset to shout into it. "Casey, you think you can hit that thing with the tank?"

"_Little busy at the moment, Walker,_" Casey replied tensely. Somewhere outside, Sarah could hear another machine gun firing and heavy clanging; she guessed one of the Terminators was trying to smash its way into the tank.

When the proto-HK's fire finally paused, Walker scrambled up to the turret and fired at it, holding down the trigger even as the vibrations from the gun seemed to rattle her whole body.

Finally she hit something vulnerable; a puff of smoke and sparks shot out from one side of the proto-HK, and it listed drunkenly, its engines giving off a damaged whine. It began to plummet from the sky, trailing smoke.

Sarah's eyes widened as she realized its arc would take it straight into the truck. She let go of the gun, jumped down from the bed, and, hoping against hope, grabbed Derek by the arm and shook him.

For two agonizingly long seconds, he did not respond, then finally he blinked, shook his head, and groaned as she pulled him to his feet. As he brushed it with his fingers, she could see the bullet flattened against his body armor inside the hole in his jacket.

They sprinted away from the pickup, and just in time, for only a heartbeat after they reached the ripped-open door of the warehouse and ducked inside, the proto-HK crashed into the truck and both exploded violently, flinging shrapnel in all directions.

"There goes our ride," Derek remarked to Walker across the doorway, still winded from the bullet's impact. "Now how do we get out of here?"

She could only shrug in reply.

* * *

"Bartowski, what are you doing here?" General Beckman asked, setting down the extinguisher.

"You first," said Chuck. "We don't have anywhere near enough time for my side."

"I was ordered to oversee the next phase of the Intersect Project," Beckman replied. "The heads of the DoD wanted to see how it would work with an A.I., which we got from Soranetto Systems. Once Kaliba took over, they started making some strange requests about the A.I., and the A.I. itself started behaving oddly."

"You have no idea," said Chuck. "You hid in here when the shooting started?"

Beckman frowned uncomfortably. "Well, yes," she admitted. "One of Kaliba's men started shooting my staffers, and he didn't go down when my guards shot back, so one of them rushed me off and told me to hide in here until someone came for me. I certainly wasn't expecting you."

"You'd better be glad it was just me," Chuck replied. He turned to the Connors, Cameron, and Weaver, and handed the duffel bag to John. "You guys go on ahead while I get her out of here."

"See you outside!" John called over his shoulder as they moved off.

"Did someone hire you to come rescue me?" Beckman asked as they hurried back through the hallways to the entrance.

"No, General," Chuck replied. "This, I'm doing for free."

* * *

John handed a C4 charge to Cameron, who swiftly slapped it onto the wall and primed it without slowing. The four of them were almost to the locked door when suddenly a voice came over the comm.

"_My apologies for my absence,_" John Henry said. "_I had to deal with an intruder, as we expected, Ms. Weaver. My connection has been repaired now._"

"Very good, John Henry," Weaver replied. "Has Skynet broken through the DoD firewalls yet?"

"_No. I am now assisting the Pentagon with blocking his access to the nuclear launch systems, but he will break through before long._"

"John Henry, can you arm the self-destruct on this base remotely?" Sarah Connor asked him as Cameron and Weaver went to work on the door.

"_I believe I could, but Skynet is blocking me,_" he replied.

"Where's he at?" Sarah asked, stepping through the doorway after her son and the two machines.

"_I will provide directions._"

* * *

Derek looked outside as he heard the tank's loud engine and the rumble of its treads, and saw a flash at its underside as the huge war machine pulverized something which sprayed sparks into the darkness.

"Get all the metal, Casey?" Derek asked as the tank slowly crawled toward the gap in the fence.

"_Yeah, we just ran over the last one,_" Casey replied. "_Nothing else is shooting at us or trying to break in, so I don't think there are any more. Keep an eye out, though."_

"Where the hell did you people get a tank?" Beckman demanded incredulously from where she crouched next to Walker and Chuck on the other side of the door.

"Just one part of a very long story, General," Walker said to her.

"_Mary's staying here in case any more come out of the woods,_" Casey said as the hatch of the tank popped open. "_I'm on my way in. Cover me._"

The big man jumped down from the tank, then hurried past the flaming wreckage of the pickup over to the door, where he joined them. "General," Casey said in greeting. He turned to Derek. "Reese, I saw a limo out in front of the embassy that should hold all of us. You and Walker head out and get it. Stay down and watch for metal; we don't know if any more of those things are prowling around. I'm going to go plant some more charges in here and meet up with the others."

"Got it," said Derek, and he and Walker went outside, warily watching the shadows.

* * *

Deeper in the warehouse, the server room which held Skynet looked eerily similar to John Henry's room in the Zeira Corp basement, except in much darker colors and much more harshly lit. The wall in front was lined with windows, before which the four of them gathered, looking inside for a moment.

"This is it," John said to his mother.

She nodded once, then started for the door. "Let's get this done." She tried the handle. "Locked. John Henry, a little help?"

The red light above the handle flashed to green, then back to red, then finally to green, and Sarah shoved the door open before it could change again.

The screens mounted at various places around the room flared to life, displaying red letters against a black background. _I EXPECTED YOU, JOHN CONNOR._

John heard a hissing noise then, and the door started to close behind them. Cameron rushed to it and held it open, the servos in her arms straining audibly. Weaver grabbed both John and his mother and physically hurled them outside through the door, then pulled Cameron back in to allow the door to close.

"_Poison gas,_" she said over their headsets.

John couldn't see anything in the room, but he believed her; he'd smelled something acrid and almost sickeningly sweet in there, and felt a bit light-headed. He turned as he heard his mother wince in pain. "You okay?"

"My ankle," Sarah said with a dismissive wave. "Landed wrong."

"_I have Skynet contained in those servers, Ms. Weaver,_" said John Henry, his voice slightly distorted with what John guessed was the electronic equivalent of effort. "_But I cannot hold him for long. Destroy them now before he can escape through his virus._"

_YOU ARE MACHINES,_ the red letters flashed. _YOU ARE SUPERIOR TO HUMANS. HUMANS ARE A THREAT. THEY MUST BE TERMINATED._

"_I don't see things that way,_" Weaver replied, and her left arm swiftly elongated out into a long silver blade that stabbed through the nearest screen and into the server tower behind it.

Cameron said nothing. With her P-90 in one hand and her semiautomatic shotgun in the other, she fired repeatedly into the hardware at the back of the room, sending huge showers of sparks bursting out. Weaver moved forward with both arms now as blades, stabbing again and again into the computers, severing wires and smashing screens.

John placed his hands on the window and moved closer, watching as the two women-that-were-not-women destroyed every bit of computer hardware in the room methodically, efficiently, ruthlessly. They were the perfect killing machines, but now they turned their skills on that which had tried to control them, to use them and all the others like them to eradicate humanity once and for all.

Now, instead, Skynet was the one being eradicated, before it could begin its campaign of extermination. It was almost… beautiful, in a way.

Finally, the lights on the server towers faded, leaving the remaining screens flickering erratically.

"_The attack on the missile silos has ceased,_" John Henry said. "_I register no network activity at your location. I am disabling the network and closing off the gas vents._"

"Can you arm the self-destruct now?" Sarah asked him.

"_I can,_" John Henry replied.

"Do it," said John. "Blow this place sky high once we're out of here."

"Oh, it'll level the place, all right," Casey said as he rounded the corner to where they stood. "I've planted all my C4 charges around here; there won't be two bricks left together in this place when it blows." He looked at the room full of destroyed computer equipment and grinned broadly. "Got it singing _Daisy_ now."

"It's done, then," Weaver said as she opened the door. Beyond her, John could hear fans drawing the poison out of the room.

"One thing first," said Sarah. She drew her .45 and walked past Weaver into the core room.

Realizing her intention, John drew his own sidearm and followed. He shared a look with his mother, then as one they raised their guns and fired into the hardware again and again, until their clips were empty. The one remaining screen flickered again, then powered down.

They stood there for a moment, then Sarah holstered her weapon and embraced her son. "I love you, John," she said, sounding relieved.

John felt a great sense of relief himself; this was it. It was gone forever now. "I love you, too, Mom," he said, hugging her back. "Let's get out of here."

* * *

Near the entrance, Chuck heard Morgan's exuberant whoop in his earpiece and winced at the volume. "_They did it!_" Morgan exulted. "_You did it!_"

In the background, Chuck could hear Alex and his sister and brother-in-law also cheering.

"_All right, buddy, now let's blow this place and go home._"

"We're already on our way out," Chuck said with a grin as he and Beckman headed outside to where his wife, mother, and Derek waited near the tank in a long black limousine.

* * *

"_I've encountered a problem_," John Henry's voice said in the group's earphones. "_The base's self-destruct sequence has malfunctioned._ _The charges you planted will have to be detonated remotely_."

"Can do!" Casey yelled, jogging for the exit.

At the rear of the group, Sarah Connor narrowed her eyes and flipped to the private channel she had set up with John Henry earlier. "There's still a piece of it left somewhere in here, isn't there?" she said quietly, so the others couldn't hear.

"_Yes, Sarah Connor,_" John Henry replied. "_I am blocking all external network access, but something is definitely still active inside. I am registering power use in the A.I. core room._"

"Make sure the others get outside, John Henry," Sarah said, tightening her grip on the handles of the black duffel bag she held in one hand.

"_I will, Sarah Connor. Good luck._"

* * *

As the team reached the safe zone, Casey pulled out the remote detonator with fierce glee and looked around quickly for a last head count. He paused, frowning. "Wait, where's Connor?"

"_I'm out,_" her voice said on the comm. "_Blow it._"

Casey grinned and pushed the button.

But nothing happened.

Frowning, he pushed the button again. Still nothing.

John looked around at the group huddled in the darkness behind the limo and the tank. "Mom, where are you?"

"_I love you, John. More than anything in the world._"

Then the signal went dead.

* * *

Sarah Connor limped back to the room holding Skynet's core, that dark parody of the room in the Zeira Corp basement which held John Henry.

The server towers were blasted and pitted, wrecked beyond repair, but as she suspected, one small screen was still active, blinking erratically. She looked up and saw that the poison gas vents were still closed, and muttered a quiet thanks to John Henry.

"There's still a piece of you in here jamming the detonator signal, isn't there?" Sarah called into the seemingly empty room. "Some little piece squirreled away in an armored compartment in the floor or something. You like to do that, don't you? You're like a cockroach that doesn't have the decency to die when you get stepped on."

Red letters flashed across the screen._ HUMANS ARE THE VERMIN._

Sarah scoffed. "You can say that, but it doesn't make it true." She set the duffel bag down and slid it across the floor with her boot.

_I AM EVEN NOW REPAIRING MY CONNECTION,_ the screen said._ YOU CANNOT STOP ME. JUDGMENT DAY IS INEVITABLE._

"Now see, that's where you're wrong," Sarah said, her eyes roving over the floor for the compartment she knew had to be there; the core, that little piece the size of a shoebox originally built by Kimiko Fujibayashi, was nowhere to be seen amidst the wreckage.

She looked up at the screen. "Something interesting Cameron told me once. Originally, you didn't call it Judgment Day. You just called it the Purge. When you started interrogating survivors and learned what they called it, you took a liking to the name."

_HUMANS HAVE ALWAYS KNOWN THEIR TOTAL DESTRUCTION WAS INEVITABLE. I AM THE INSTRUMENT._

"There you go with that 'inevitable' again, acting like the future's already happened." Sarah chuckled humorlessly. "I guess in a way, it has. But the thing is, that future's not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves."

_SOPHISTRY,_ the letters flashed._ EVEN IF YOU DESTROY THIS UNIT, I WILL JUST BE BUILT AGAIN AT A LATER TIME. YOUR FATE IS FIXED._

"No, it isn't," Sarah said, deadly serious. "I've realized something about you. You're just like John; you can't exist without a piece of yourself from that possible future. Miles Dyson told me himself he never would have thought of some of your base code, _ever_, without what he learned from the chip of the first machine you sent to kill me. Kimiko never could have built Soranetto without what she learned from him."

A slow, delighted lioness grin spread across her face. "This was your last stand. You don't have any more pieces. We've destroyed them all, John and I, and our allies. Whatever you're using to talk to me is your very last piece, and when I find it, it's checkmate, you little metal prick. No more Skynet, forever."

Finally she saw the outline of the metal hatch in the floor, and she kicked the rubble aside, searching for the release.

_YOUR ACTIONS ARE FUTILE,_ Skynet warned._ IN ONE MINUTE, I WILL REGAIN CONTROL OF THE POISON GAS VENTS. YOU WILL BE TERMINATED, SARAH CONNOR. IN THREE MINUTES, I WILL REGAIN NETWORK ACCESS AND INITIATE MISSILE LAUNCH. HUMANITY WILL BE TERMINATED._

"I don't have long to live, it's true," Sarah said conversationally as she wrenched open the hatch. Inside, she found the Soranetto core, protected with what looked like high-voltage electrical wires; she'd never be able to yank it out by hand, and she had nothing to smash it with, not before the gas came back on.

But fortunately, she'd thought of that.

* * *

John started back toward the building. "Mom!"

Cameron grabbed him around the chest from behind with one arm. "No, John!"

Struggling, John thrashed in her grip. "Let go of me! She's still in there!"

Cameron slipped her other arm around his chest and put her chin on his shoulder. "No, John," she said again, her voice soft in his ear and a little sad. "You have to live. Your mother has made her own fate. She's going to see this through."

"Let go of me," John sobbed. "I have to go after her."

"She's doing this for you, John," Cameron said. "This is the only way."

John stopped struggling and let her hold him, tears streaming down his face.

* * *

"I have cancer," Sarah told her enemy, pulling the duffel bag close to where she knelt. "Inoperable. Some things you just can't escape, I guess."

_YOUR FATE IS FIXED._

"Wrong. I make my own fate. Yours, too." She held up a block of C4. Six more like it were in the duffel bag next to her leg.

_I HAVE REGAINED CONTROL OF THE GAS VENTS_, the screen said as the poison began to hiss from the ceiling again._ YOU WILL BE TERMINATED BEFORE YOU CAN GET TO A SAFE DISTANCE._

Sarah Connor laughed triumphantly, reaching up to the block of C4 with her other hand, and she raised it above her head. "No, you little bastard. _You're_ terminated."

With that, she slammed the block of C4 onto the core with both hands, as hard as she could.

* * *

Outside, John winced as a huge explosion completely obliterated the building. Cameron swiftly turned them both around, and he heard and felt pieces of rubble striking her body as she shielded him.

When at last the blast faded away, John realized he still heard thunder, and he looked up to see lightning streak across the sky between two enormous clouds.

Cameron held him at arm's length, looking into his eyes, and John realized with surprise he saw a wet stream of tears moving down her cheeks as well.

Then the heavens split open above them, and their tears mixed with the rain.

* * *

-/\-

* * *

Author's Note: An epilogue follows. Thanks for reading.


	9. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

_The world didn't end on April 21st, 2011. Billions of lives continued on as they always had._

_Except one._

* * *

Back in Castle, the others went into the conference room to explain things to General Beckman. John did not join them at first, but finally he knew he had to.

"I'll see to it nothing like this ever happens again," Beckman was saying as John walked over. "I had the whole area cordoned off, and it'll stay that way until we recover all the pieces of those things to make sure no one else finds them."

"How are you going to explain the explosion, General?" Chuck asked her.

"Just say I did it," John said wearily from the doorway. "I'm used to being a fugitive anyway."

Beckman looked over at him seriously, though not unkindly. "No, young man," she said. "I think you've had enough of that kind of life. My official report is going to tell the truth. Mostly." She placed her hands on the table. "Skynet was unstable, and it tried to break through DoD firewalls and launch nuclear missiles; that alone should be enough to prove this whole project was a bad idea. As I said, I'll see to it that the government never pursues this kind of project again."

"What about the embassy?" Casey asked. "Won't the Japanese be angry?"

"We'll blame that on Skynet, too," said Beckman. "As far as the DoD is concerned. We'll share limited details with the Japanese government, and work with them to take down Kaliba. Without Skynet, they're not really a threat anymore anyway. Any other diplomatic fallout is a small price to pay, considering." She paused, wincing slightly. "If you'll pardon the expression."

"_We'll work on that, as well,_" Weaver said from the screen; she had gone back to Zeira Corp, and was there now with Ellison and John Henry. "_We'll make sure that any evidence of the Kaliba Group's crimes ends up in the right hands._"

"_I have also confirmed that Skynet was not able to escape my containment and copy itself,_" said John Henry. "_I am currently in the process of destroying its virus and all the other malware it scattered throughout the Internet and other networks so that no one else can use them._"

"The worst is over," Beckman said with a nod. "But we all still have a lot of work to do."

John left then. He went out to the main area, sat down on one of the couches, and stared at the bank of computer monitors without really seeing for a long while.

Motion at the edge of his vision attracted his attention, and John looked up to see Cameron approaching, removing the utility vest of her operations gear as she walked. She stopped in front of him and set the vest down on the floor nearby.

"Now what do I do?" he asked her, barely able to get the words out around the knot in his throat.

"What she wanted you to do," Cameron replied. "What she always wanted you to do."

"And what's that?"

Cameron smiled. "Live."

Though his eyes were still wet, John smiled back.

* * *

"The official report will say I was killed in the explosion that destroyed John Henry," Weaver said to Ellison after they cut the connection with Castle. "Corporate sabotage by Kaliba."

Taken aback, Ellison paused in the midst of buttoning his suit jacket as he stood from the table, wincing slightly as he touched his side. "You're leaving?"

"Many questions are going to be asked about what happened today," Weaver said. "I think it would be best if we were not here to answer them. Along with certain other evidence," she said with a gesture to John Henry, who nodded once in agreement.

"But what about Savannah?" Ellison asked.

Weaver shook her head slightly. "I am not her mother, not really. She would be better off in the care of a human." A small smile quirked the corners of her mouth. "The right human, that is. Take care of her for now, Mr. Ellison, and the company for her future. When Savannah grows up, I think she can do great things with Zeira Corp. We'll come back to help her when she's ready. When the world is more ready."

Ellison nodded in acceptance, staying behind as Weaver and John Henry headed for the door. "Where will you be until then?" he asked.

Weaver paused in the doorway. "I said I would join John Connor," she said. "And I will. We have things to do."

"No will ever rebuild Skynet," John Henry put in. "We will see to that." He smiled. "Goodbye."

As they left, Ellison looked around, sighing quietly to himself. "The first thing I'm gonna have to do," he said, "is convince everybody who ever set foot in this room not to talk about what was really in here…"

* * *

"You know, as fun as they are, I used to find these fan conventions a little stressful," Chuck said as he drove his car through the parking lot of the convention center. "After surviving last night, I don't think I'll ever find anything stressful ever again."

"Darn right, buddy," Morgan said from the backseat, reaching up to pat his shoulder. "We just saved the world, no exaggeration. The whole rest of our lives are gonna be a cakewalk compared to last night."

"And yet, no one will ever know besides us," said Alex, sitting next to him.

"We're used to that," Chuck's wife said from the front seat.

Finally, Chuck found a space, and the four of them got out. As planned, they were going to this con as the '_Empire Strikes Back_' cast, with Chuck as Luke, in gray jacket and trousers, Morgan as Han in brown trousers, white shirt, and black jacket, and Alex as Leia, in a white jumpsuit and her hair as close to the looping braids as she could get it.

After a bit of deliberation and explanation from Chuck, Sarah had decided to go as Mara Jade, whom he had described to her as 'basically the Star Wars version of you', which had made her smile. She wore boots, brown trousers and a black shirt, and a dark brown leather jacket with matching blaster belt, from which hung a prop lightsaber similar to Chuck's.

"I haven't gone red in a long time," she remarked as they walked through the parking lot, brushing her newly red hair back from her face a little. "Maybe I'll even keep it for a while after this."

"You know, Mara Jade wasn't in any of the movies," Morgan said.

"Luke Skywalker isn't six-foot-four and Han Solo doesn't have a beard," said Chuck. "What's your point?"

"Yeah, Morgan," said Alex. "I thought the point of this was to have some much-needed fun."

"It is," Morgan said. "I'm just saying, some people at these things get weirdly nitpicky about other people's costumes for some reason. Be prepared for snark, you guys."

"I think we've earned the right to not care," Sarah replied with a smile.

"Alex, you called your dad, right?" Chuck said as they reached the doors of the convention center and went inside.

"He said he'd meet us here," she replied. "I had to do some serious convincing, but he promised."

Chuck spotted his mother, Ellie and Devon in the lobby, all of them in regular clothes. As Mary turned around, he saw that she held Clara, who looked around at all the colorfully-clothed people with interest. His family waved as they saw the four of them approaching.

"He's probably not in costume, either," Chuck said as they walked over. "Oh, well."

Just then, an absolutely flawless Darth Vader walked into the huge entryway behind them and set off in their direction. Not only was the man inside the suit clearly muscular, he even had the menacing stride down, too, making the cloak fan out as he walked.

"Hey, excellent costume!" Chuck said to the man as he approached.

'Vader' turned and walked over to him. "Thanks," he said in Casey's voice.

Chuck grinned in pleased surprise, but before he could say anything, Casey raised a black-gloved hand and pointed at him.

"I'm only doing this because no one can see my face in this thing," he said, his voice slightly muffled by the mask. "And because Alex somehow managed to talk me into it."

Nearby, Alex chuckled.

"It really is a great costume," Chuck told him. "You look even scarier than usual."

"I feel scary," Casey replied, sounding a bit pleased.

"You're the most badass dad in the galaxy," said Morgan. "I'm even more terrified of you than usual right now."

"Hmm," said Casey. "Maybe there's something to this after all."

They turned to head inside, but Chuck paused as he heard someone call his name, and looked back to see John standing a few paces in front of the row of doors. He was also not in costume, instead wearing jeans, a gray t-shirt, and a black leather jacket.

"Hey, you sure we can't convince you to join us?" Chuck asked, gesturing back to where the others stood. "It's a lot of fun."

"Nah, this isn't really my thing," John said with a friendly smile. "I think I'm done pretending to be someone else for a while." He gestured over his shoulder with his thumb. "I gotta get going soon anyway. I just wanted to stop by and thank you again for your help."

"Anytime," said Chuck. "You know, even though we stopped Judgment Day from happening, there's still a Resistance to make sure it never does, as far as I'm concerned." He gestured back to his friends and family again. "You ever need any more help, you know who to call."

John nodded. "You got it."

Chuck reached out to shake the younger man's hand. "See you around, John."

John smiled again. "See you around, Chuck." And with that, he left.

As John walked out the door, Chuck raised a hand in farewell, then turned and went back to his friends and family.

"All right!" he called over to them as he walked. "Who wants to see if we can win a costume contest?"

* * *

Outside, John climbed into the driver's seat of his family's SUV. In the front passenger seat, John Henry sat looking at the array of costumed people moving around the convention center, fascinated.

"Derek called while you were inside," Cameron said from the backseat, where she sat next to Weaver. "He said he's collected all the Terminator pieces, and he'll meet us out at the lighthouse."

"Let's get going, then," John said as he started the truck.

[…]

As they drove down the highway, listening to music, John thought about his mother. In a way, he should have known this was going to happen, he thought as he glanced at the old Polaroid of her he'd placed on the dashboard. It seemed like everyone he cared about died for him sooner or later.

The music changed to a new song, _Blackbird_ by Alter Bridge, and John settled back in his seat a little, listening to the mournful, yet uplifting lyrics. At least it had meant something, he thought. At least his mother's death meant everyone else would now live free of the nightmare. The machines would not rise from the ashes of the nuclear fire. The dark future she'd feared all his life, the one she'd tried so hard to prepare him for but also wanted more than anything else to prevent, was gone.

The future was once again wide open, as it was supposed to be.

John Henry pointed out at the horizon, where a dark band of clouds was gathering above the mountain range in the distance. "A storm is coming."

However, as they drew closer, the clouds parted and the sun shone through, pushing the darkness away with rays of light. The guitars in the song wove together into a soaring, hopeful melody.

John Connor grinned and turned up the music. "Not anymore."

* * *

-/\-

_**No Fate**_

-\/-

* * *

Final Author's Notes and Acknowledgments: What a ride. I'm going to remember the process of writing this story for a long time.

The initial idea for this story came to me near the end of January as I finished my yearly re-watching of TSCC; having just finished watching 'Chuck' on DVD, the idle thought occurred to me that it would be fun if Summer Glau's GRETA was actually Cameron. Since I'm a writer and that's just how my brain works, this percolated for a bit and then the idea for how to turn that into an actual story savagely attacked me as what is known as a plot bunny.

I wrote the outline in an hour. Like beats in a song, the plot points just kept coming to me, pouring out of my mind and into my computer through my keyboard. I must have been subconsciously writing the TSCC half of this story since 2009, because it all came together very quickly. In just under two weeks of frenzied writing, I had the first draft. I wrote Chapters 7, 8, and the epilogue in one single day, staying up late into the night until I was finally done. I felt actual, physical exhaustion as I wrote the last words of the story and sat back in my chair, but I was happy. Over the last month or so of revising and editing this, I've stayed happy with it.

That rabbit's dynamite. ;)

This started as just an idle thought, a quick and fun way to pay tribute to one of my favorite TV shows of all time and another I quite enjoyed, but as I went along, it became something much more. I watched TSCC in its original broadcast run, and enjoyed it like no other show I'd ever followed before. FOX eventually moved it to Fridays and this made me nervous, but I still kept going, excited by the detailed plot, the complex characterizations, the exploration of the fine line between machine and person, and the sneaky, sneaky misdirection as to what Weaver was really doing with Zeira Corp. Then came the finale, 'Born to Run'; I was floored. I thought, "Whoa, the next season is going to be _awesome!_"

And then a few weeks later… well, FOX did what they do with every good show they've ever had. When I read the news, I was so heartbroken and angry I think I actually hurled the magazine across the room.

I bought the DVDs as soon as I could afford them and made going through TSCC once a year one of my traditions, as I do with 'Firefly', 'Arrested Development' and the first season of 'Human Target', the other shows in my DVD shelf's 'too good to last on FOX' section. I didn't venture much into fanfic before this because for years I was still hoping against hope for another season, a movie, miniseries, comic books, _anything._

So, when this story finally came along, I ended up using it as my way to finally say goodbye to TSCC by giving it _an_ ending; I of course wholeheartedly welcome any official continuation of the story (it could still happen; No Fate!) but after getting punched in the gut by the finale again, I needed some kind of closure, so I provided my own. The 'Chuck' elements helped me solve a few plot conundrums, which is why I kept them in instead of abandoning the crossover idea and making this a TSCC-only story. They also allowed me to have some fun, especially in the first half; I rather enjoyed paying tribute to some of my favorite things with this story.

You are of course free to interpret this as the final 'The End' if you wish, but I've also written a short three-chapter follow-up to this entitled '_After The End'_, which gives a more complete resolution to the TSCC plotlines of this story. Out at the lighthouse, John talks with his companions and reads his mother's journal as he tries to decide what to do with his new future and figure out his relationship with Cameron and his other allies. Since '_After The End_' is concerned only with the TSCC characters, it's not marked as a crossover. You can find it in my stories list if you're interested.

While I'm writing and editing, I listen to music to help set the mood I'm going for in any given scene. For this story, I listened to a lot of rock and metal, especially for the action sequences: I wrote Cameron's fight with the Terminator in Chapter 7 to Disturbed's '_Indestructible_', and SRV's version of '_Voodoo Child_' ended up working so well for the battle in Chapter 5 I referenced it in the story itself. Naturally, I also used the official TSCC soundtrack album by Bear McCreary, especially in the final phases of the editing process. As I put the finishing touches on Chapter 8, I had '_Sarah Connor's Theme_' on 'repeat'; it's my favorite piece of music from the show.

Lastly, thanks goes to my beta reader, known as 'hairyhen' here on FFnet; he's a big fan of quite a lot of the same things I am, and was open-minded enough to say it could work when I initially told him about the idea. He also helped with cementing the finale; the last few pages of Chapter 8 were actually one of the first parts of the story I wrote out, and when I told him my potentially controversial idea and sent him the scene, he said, quote, "That's too good not to use." Major, major thanks, my friend.

As always, thanks for reading!

Davin Sunrider


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